Bamise Ajetunmobi, the judgment debtor accused of orchestrating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded over 27 Nigerian investors of an estimated N15 billion, expressed his interest in pursuing an out-of-court settlement during proceedings at the Federal High Court in Lagos. Ajetunmobi, along with his company Imagine Global Solution Limited, faces charges of conspiracy and obtaining funds through fraudulent means brought forth by the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation.
Previously, on July 14, 2022, Justice Toyin Oyekan-Abdullahi of the Lagos High Court had ruled in favor of the aggrieved investors, ordering Ajetunmobi and his wife, Elizabeth Ajetunmobi, to repay N18.8 billion, inclusive of interest. Despite the court’s directives to freeze their assets globally and restrain their financial transactions, the whereabouts of the couple remained unknown until Bamise’s reported arrest in Côte d’Ivoire while attempting to flee to the UK.
Following his apprehension and subsequent detention by Nigerian authorities, the Federal Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID) detained Ajetunmobi, who was later arraigned before the Federal High Court on August 12, 2023, after the Attorney General’s office took over the case. His wife, however, remains at large.
Despite vehemently denying the charges leveled against him during his arraignment before Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke, Ajetunmobi found himself unable to meet the stringent bail conditions set by the court, resulting in his incarceration by the Nigerian Correctional Services. During the recent court proceedings, his legal representative, Dr. BU Ukpenna, disclosed to the court his efforts to pursue an out-of-court settlement, signaling a potential shift in the trajectory of the legal proceedings.
In response, the prosecutor, Mrs. Kehinde Bode-Ayeni, requested a brief adjournment to facilitate consultations with the Attorney General’s office regarding the possibility of an out-of-court settlement. Subsequently, the court granted the adjournment until June 26, with the expectation of receiving a progress report on the settlement negotiations.
The prosecutor, Mrs. Bode-Ayeni, an Assistant Chief State Counsel, while arraigning the defendant, told the court that the defendant committed the alleged offences between February 2018 to December 2022, at his office complex located at plot 29a, Adebisi Ogunniyi Crescent, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos.
Among those allegedly defrauded by the defendant and the amounts he defrauded them according to the prosecutor were: Abioye Idiris, N3. 5 billion; Chikezie Nowokocha (April Breakthrough Ventures) N1. 760,740 billion; Edith Agu and her three friends, N236,500 million; and Mr. Peter Okonye and his wife, Mrs. Thelma Okonye, N1. 2 billion, and 31 others.
She told the court that the alleged offences contravened sections 8(a) and 1(1)(a) of the advance fee fraud and other fraud related offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 8 and 8 read in conjunction with section 1(3) of the same Act.
Some of the charges against the defendant reads: “That you, Imagine Global Solutions Ltd of Plot 29(a), Adebisi Ogunniyi Crescent, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos, Lagos State, Bamise Samson Ajetunmobi ‘M’, the Managing Director of Imagine Global Solutions Ltd and others (now at large), sometimes in December, 2018 and 2022, at Lagos, Lagos State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, while acting as investors, did, with the intent to defraud, obtained a total sum of N3,500,000,000.00 (Three Billion five hundred Million Naira) at different times, from Abioye Idiris on the pretext that you were going to invest the money for him and remit some percentage of the total sum to him on monthly basis as interest while the principal sum would be returned to him in full at the end of the tenure, a representation which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1)(a) of the Advance fee fraud and other Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.
“That you, Imagine Global Solutions Ltd of Plot 29(a), Adebisi Ogunniyi Crescent, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos, Lagos State, Bamise Samson Ajetunmobi ‘M’, the Managing Director of Imagine Global Solutions Ltd and others (now at large), sometimes between December 2020 and July, 2021, at Lagos, Lagos State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, while acting as investors, did, with the intent to defraud, obtained a total sum of N1,760,740,000.00(One Billion, Seven Hundred and Sixty Million, Seven hundred and Forty thousand Naira) at different times, from Chikezie Nowokocha (April Breakthrough Ventures), on the pretext that you were going to invest the money for him and remit some percentage of the total sum to him on monthly basis as interest, while the principal sum would be returned to him in full at the end of the tenure, a representation which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1)(a) of the Advance fee fraud and other Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.
“That you, Imagine Global Solutions Ltd of Plot 29(a), Adebisi Ogunniyi Crescent, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos, Lagos State, Bamise Samson Ajetunmobi ‘M’, the Managing Director of Imagine Global Solutions Ltd and others (now at large),sometimes between the period of April, to September, 2021, at Lagos, Lagos State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, while acting as investors, did, with the intent to defraud, obtained a total sum of N236, 500, 000.00 (two hundred and thirty six million, five hundred thousand Naira) at different times, from Edith Agu and her three friends, on the pretext that you were going to invest the money for them and remit some percentage of the money to them as ‘interest’ monthly, while the principal sum would be returned to them in full at the end of the tenure, a representation which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1)(a) of the Advance fee fraud and other Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.
“That you, Imagine Global Solutions Ltd of Plot 29(a), Adebisi Ogunniyi Crescent, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos, Lagos State, Bamise Samson Ajetunmobi ‘M’, the Managing Director of Imagine Global Solutions Ltd and others (now at large), sometimes between December 2020 and July, 2021, at Lagos, Lagos State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, while acting as investors, did, with the intent to defraud, obtained a total sum of N1, 200, 000, 000. 00 (one billion, two hundred million Naira) at different times, from Mr. Peter Okonye, his wife, Mrs. Thelma Okonye and others, on the pretext that you were going to invest the money for them and remit some percentage of the money to them as interest monthly, while the principal sum would be returned to them on maturity or end of the tenure, a representation which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1 (1)(a) of the Advance fee fraud and other Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act.”