Would-be Sheffield United owner alleged to have pulled off 'massive fraud' to bankroll takeover

America's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has made an emergency application to request a temporary restraining order freezing the Nigerian businessman's assets, prohibiting the transfer of money or property to him and preventing the destruction of records amongst other measures a month after launching an investigation.

Mmobuosi tried to buy the South Yorkshire club last winter when they were still in the Championship. He agreed a deal with owner Prince Abdullah Bin Mosaad Al Saud but was unable to persuade the Football League he was a fit and proper owner.

Their circumspection appears justified after the SEC accused him of "massive fraud", in a complaint filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Monday.

The SEC claim that "since at least 2019 (Mmobuosi) spearheaded a scheme to fabricate financial statements and other documents of the three entities (Tingo Group, Agri-Fintech Holdings, and Tingo International Holdings) and their Nigerian operating subsidiaries, Tingo Mobile Limited and Tingo Foods PLC."

He is also said to have lied to auditors and misrepresented the success of his business operations in press releases and SEC filings to defraud investors at the three companies, and fabricated customer relationships while "fraudulently obtaining hundreds of millions in money or property through these schemes" and to have falsely claimed to have sold 12m mobile phones to African farmers.

It alleges "Mmobuosi and the entities he controls have fraudulently obtained hundreds of millions in money or property through these schemes."

The SEC claimed Tingo Group filed accounts for the 2022 fiscal year reporting a cash and cash equivalent balance of $461.7m from bank accounts which allegedly had a combined balance of less than $50.

The SEC claim that "Mmobuosi has siphoned off funds for his personal benefit, including purchases of luxury cars and travel on private jets, as well as an unsuccessful attempt to acquire an English football club Premier League team, among other things."

The SEC temporarily suspended the trading of Tingo shares a month ago, with US investment research firm Hindenburg calling the company an "exceptionally obvious scam".

It also claimed that an agricultural marketplace launched by Tingo that Mmobuosi once claimed would grow to process 2m transactions never existed.

Around a year before Mmbuousi's interest in Sheffield United, Henri Mauriss tried to buy the Blades having failed in an attempted £115m takeover of Newcastle United. The American businessman was jailed for wire fraud in California last year.

The Bramall Lane club were revealed to have gone to the High Court seeking £10m in an unpaid deposit from his failed takeover attempt.

Sheffield United remain up for sale, with Prince Abdullah's more-than-two-year attempt to find a buyer ongoing even after their promotion to the Premier League, world football's most lucrative domestic competition.

The SEC inquiry into Mmobuosi is also ongoing.