Nigeria scam version 2.0

Nigeria scam version 2.0

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Here are some excerpts from Hindenburg Research's report on this Nigerian Food & Mobile Scam.

• company held a groundbreaking ceremony for a planned $1.6 billion Nigerian food processing facility of its own…We found that the rendering of the planned facility, featured in Tingo's investor materials and on a billboard at the ceremony, is actually a rendering of an oil refinery from a stock photo website!

• We strongly suspect Tingo's cash balance, which it conveniently claims is held in Nigeria, is fake. 

• Nigerian Communications Commission showed it has no record of Tingo being a mobile licensee at all, despite company claims of having 12 million mobile customers

Tingo Group: Fake Farmers, Phones, and Financials—The Nigerian Empire That Isn't

"they are scammers"

Published on June 6, 2023

Tingo Food Division

• Tingo's food division is 7 months old, yet claimed to generate $577.2 million in revenue last quarter alone, representing 68% of total reported revenue. If accurate, its claimed 24.8% operating margins would exceed those of every major comparable food company.
• Yet, Tingo has no food processing facility of its own. Rather, it claims its explosive revenue and profitability is derived from acting as a middleman between Nigerian farmers and an unnamed third-party food processor.
• In February 2023, the company held a groundbreaking ceremony for a planned $1.6 billion Nigerian food processing facility of its own, attended by the country's agriculture minister and other political luminaries.
• We found that the rendering of the planned facility, featured in Tingo's investor materials and on a billboard at the ceremony, is actually a rendering of an oil refinery from a stock photo website.
• We visited the site a week later and found zero signs of progress; it was empty except for the plaque and billboard commemorating the groundbreaking ceremony, surrounded by weeds.
• Subsequent to the "groundbreaking", Tingo announced a $150 million agreement with a UK entity called Evtec Energy to build solar panels for its non-existent food processing facility. Funding for the deal is slated to be provided through Evtec, but UK filings show that Evtec was "Dormant" as of its most recent annual report and held zero cash in the bank.
• Tingo Group bought Tingo Foods from Dozy in February 2023 for $204 million, a price "approximately equal to the cost value of the inventory held by Tingo Foods".
• The inventory, which was reported in year-end financials, completely vanished from Tingo's Q1 2023 accounts without explanation. In our experience, $204 million in inventory doesn't just disappear at companies with internal controls and genuine financial reporting.
  
• Tingo claimed in its reverse merger press release that members of 2 unnamed farming cooperatives supply the majority of its then-9.3 million userbase, consisting of local Nigerian farmers. These farmers supposedly form the core of the company's phone customers and provide the agricultural products used in Tingo's food processing and trading businesses.
• A local media outlet identified and contacted the cooperatives. Both said they had never heard of Tingo and had fewer than 100 farmers in each cooperative.
  
• We were able to make contact with one of the cooperatives. Its owner reiterated having no relationship with Tingo and flat out told us "they are scammers".

Tingo Mobile

• Tingo claimed its mobile handset leasing, call and data segments generated $128 million in revenue last quarter (~15% of total), claiming these services are provided through an agreement with Airtel in Nigeria. The type of license they claim did not exist until June, 2023.
  
• Our checks with the Nigerian Communications Commission showed it has no record of Tingo being a mobile licensee at all, despite company claims of having 12 million mobile customers.
• Despite claiming to have millions of farmers using its phones, Tingo Mobile's corporate presentation and webpage uses stock photos of farmers using phones.
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• Tingo Mobile claimed a Ghana expansion effort would enroll 2-4 million members by February 2023. This would represent ~9%-18% market share in the country within months of launch. We found zero records pertaining to Tingo Mobile through Ghana's communication regulator.
  
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• TingoPay (part of Tingo Mobile) claimed in 2021 to have launched a partnership with a major local bank.
  
• Two days after Tingo's blockbuster announcement, the bank put out a statement calling Tingo's claim false and that it had "NOT concluded any agreement with Tingo International in respect of any payment system whatsoever".

• We strongly suspect Tingo's cash balance, which it conveniently claims is held in Nigeria, is fake. The company collected only ~12% of the interest income one would expect from its claimed cash balances.
• Overall, we think Tingo is a worthless and brazen fraud that should serve as a humiliating embarrassment for all involved. We do not expect the company will be long for this world. [!!]
  

See the whole report on Hindenburg Research's site here:

https://hindenburgresearch.com/tingo/

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