A commercial bank and an investment company were among the victims of an alleged N11,795,090,000 investment scam, a Lagos State High Court sitting at Osborne, Ikoyi heard yesterday.
Lawyers told Justice Toyin Oyekan-Abdullahi that the duo was negatively affected by the alleged Ponzi scheme of Imagine Global Holding Company Ltd, Imagine Global Solutions Ltd, Mr Bamise Samson Ajetunmobi and Mrs Elizabeth Anuoluwapo Ajetunmobi.
They spoke just as the court threatened to jail executives of banks who fail to disclose the amount to the credit of the two firms and the Ajetunmobi couple.
According to the Claimants/Applicants’, who are aggrieved Nigerian investors, over N11.795b is the outstanding investments and return on investments accruing to them from the defendants.
Justice Oyekan-Abdullahi noted that some banks were yet to comply with the court’s October 24, 2021 orders restraining banks in Nigeria from releasing funds up to N11.795b to the four defendants.
The orders also commanded the banks to, among others, file and serve on the Claimants’ counsel, Adetunji Adedoyin-Adeniyi of AAA Chambers, within seven days of service of the order on them, an affidavit disclosing the balance on the defendants’ accounts.
The orders followed a Motion on Notice for a Mareva Injunction filed ex parte by the Claimants on October 15, 2021.
At the commencement of yesterday’s proceedings, the judge warned that besides sanctioning any defaulting bank executive, any lawyer that acted contrary to the order of court would also risk being sanctioned, because “the court will not allow the citizens of this country to keep weeping because of the absconding investors.”
The court heard that one of those affected by the conduct of the Ajetunmobis and their companies was a bank that allegedly gave a loan to Imagine Global in September 2021, after accepting the defendants’ properties as collateral.
The bank filed an application seeking to discharge the order of court as an interested party.
Furthermore, Babalakin & Co equally filed an application on behalf of Mainstreet Capital Ltd, which also invested in the defendants.
But Adedoyin-Adeniyi opposed the applications on the ground, among others, that the bank was equally a victim as much as the claimants, adding that although N17billion passed through Imagine Global’s account with the bank between May 2020 and May 2021, the bank was yet to present the firm’s statement of account.
Justice Oyekan-Abdullahi upheld his argument and adjourned till November 11, 2021, for the banks to show cause in compliance with the order of court.
