Alleged N15bn Fraud: Suspected Ponzi Scheme Operator Granted N5bn bail

Bamise Ajetunmobi 

A Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, presided over by Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke, on Friday, granted bail to a suspected Ponzi scheme operator, Bamise Samson Ajetunmobi, to bail in the sum of N5bn.

The judge, who specifically ordered the defendant to deposit the said sum into the account of the Deputy Chief Registrar (DCR) of the court, as part of his bail conditions, also mandated Ajetunmobi to deposit his international travelling passport with the court’s DCR. 

Justice Aneke decided while delivering his ruling on the bail application of the alleged Ponzi scheme operator.

Ajetunmobi and his firm, Imagine Global Solution Limited were dragged before the court on an amended 35 counts of conspiracy, and obtaining the sum of N15 billion by the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).

It is recalled that the suspected Ponzi scheme operator alongside his company was re-arraigned on Thursday on the amended charge.

In her address before the judge while the re-arraignment lasted, counsel for the prosecution, Mrs Kehinde Bode-Ayeni, hinted to the judge that the defendant committed the offence between February 2018 to December 2022, at his office complex located at plot 29a, Adebisi Ogunniyi Crescent, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos.

Mrs Bode-Ayeni also notified the court that among those allegedly defrauded by the defendant and the amounts were: Abioye Idiris, N3.5 billion; Chikezie Nwokocha (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.

The lawyer equally told Justice Aneke that the alleged offence contravened Sections 8(a) and 1(1)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.

But Ajetunmobi pleaded not guilty to the charge, making the trial judge take arguments on the bail application.

Dishing out his ruling, Justice Aneke held that “The prosecutor had made a credible submission that the defendant is a ‘flight risk’, as he was arrested by the Interpol in the Ivory Coast, but bail is his constitutional right.”

The matter was thereafter adjourned until March 13 and 14, 2024, for the commencement of the trial.

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