Would-be Sheffield United owner hit with $250m fine after "fiction" judgement as Blades get lucky escape
Sheffield United’s lucky Dozy Mmobuosi escape further emphasised after would-be Blades owner hit with huge fine in damning judgement
Sheffield United’s lucky escape over the Dozy Mmobuosi saga has been laid bare again after the former would-be owner of the Blades was hit with a massive fine after a damning judgement handed down in the United States. The Nigerian businessman launched a bid to take over the Blades in 2023, agreeing a deal with current owner Prince Abdullah, but failed to convince the English Football League of his suitability.
It subsequently emerged that Mmobuosi had been charged by the USA’s Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC], who accused him of “massive fraud” in a complaint filed in New York late last year. The SEC alleged that Mmobuosi, "since at least 2019 ... spearheaded a scheme to fabricate financial statements and other documents of the three entities and their Nigerian operating subsidiaries, Tingo Mobile Limited and Tingo Foods PLC."
The complaint also alleged that Mmobuosi misrepresented business operations and financial success in press releases and SEC filings. Tingo Group reported cash and cash equivalent balance of over $460m for 2022, but the SEC alleged that its balance was less than $50. United were also indirectly included in the complaint, albeit not by name, with the SEC alleging 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." Now Mmobuosi and his three entities based in the United States have been told to pay $250m in fines, with Mmobuosi barred from serving as a director of a public company in the States. According to a report by the Financial Times, Judge Jesse M Furman “entered a final judgment by default against Mmobuosi and his companies after the entrepreneur failed to make any representations in the civil complaint filed last December by the SEC.”
Furman found that Mmobuosi and his companies - Tingo Group, Agri-Fintech Holdings and Tingo International Holdings - had “failed to answer, plead, or otherwise defend” themselves in the case, despite publicly denying the allegations. Amongst other claims, Tingo said it had more than nine million customers in Nigeria but the SEC alleged that the “purported assets, revenues, expenses, customers and suppliers” of the Tingo group were all “virtually entirely fabricated,” describing the scale of the alleged fraud as “staggering”.
Mmobuosi, who did not respond to the FT’s request for comment, rose to prominence after his bid to buy the Blades became common knowledge, appearing on Rio Ferdinand’s YouTube channel to discuss his grand plans for United and meeting supporters with well-known presences on social media in Sheffield pubs in a bid to curry favour.
The judgement only reinforces United’s lucky escape in the Mmobuosi saga, and the necessity for the EFL’s fit and proper checks to ensure that football clubs are only entrusted in the hands of those fit to own and run them. Mmobuosi was the second individual who struck a deal with Prince Abdullah to buy the Blades - the first, American Henry Mauriss, was later discovered to be serving prison time in a Californian jail for wire fraud.
The Prince has since agreed to sell United for a third time, to a US-based consortium who are still in the final stages of officially taking control of Bramall Lane and bringing the Saudi businessman’s time in South Yorkshire to an end.