By Adedapo Adesanya
An agri-fintech group of companies, Tingo Group Incorporated, has accused a short seller of triggering the suspension of its stocks by the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
Recall that in November, trading in the company’s shares was suspended by the regulator.
In June, an organisation, Hindenburg Research, published an investigative report, claiming that the group has committed multiple scams across its verticals and has also fabricated its financials.
Speaking exclusively to Business Post on the sidelines of the company’s ePos launch in Lagos last week, the Managing Director of Tingo Africa, Mr Edwin Obasogie, said its woes were caused by a short seller, who he claimed wanted to make money from the company.
“What they usually do is dig up what they think can bring down your stock prices, they throw the news out there and once your stock prices crash, they buy and as soon as you get over that, prices rise and they sell. That’s how they make money,” Mr Obasogie said.
However, he disclosed that Tingo is “out of the woods” as the board conducted an internal investigation to ascertain the veracity of the claims.
“Fortunately for us, we are out of the woods now because of that news, we went through all sorts of investigations both from SEC, from NASDAQ, and from all sorts,” he said, adding that, “Even the company’s board did its internal investigations because they wanted to be sure that the news was unfounded… We have nothing to hide, the news was unfounded.”
“So now, Tingo shares in the US are currently been traded, the company is waxing stronger, we are innovating and bringing out all sorts of products every day,” he stated, noting that being a public company, access to its numbers and other publications is made public and accessible on the group’s website.
Business Post observed that on November 29, Tingo confirmed in a notice to NASDAQ that the bourse “advised they will continue to keep the company’s securities halted pending their review of the requested information.
At the time of filing this report, the share price of the firm remained at $6.00, with no activity recorded for the stock on NASDAQ.
Dipo Olowookere