Capital Market Operator Sued for Alleged N58m Fraud

• Capital Market Operator Sued for Alleged N58m Fraud

The Managing Director of Brentonwoods Limited, Mr Samuel Adebanjo, and his company have been dragged to court on a two-count charge of alleged fraud relating to “illegal sale of shares of a client”.

The Securities and Exchange Commission disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, saying Adebanjo and his company were charged to the Federal High Court, Ikoyi.

It said when the case came up for hearing, Adebanjo pleaded not guilty to the charge and the court adjourned the matter to March 19, 2019, saying the defendant was to be remanded in prison custody till the next adjourned date.

According to the charges, Brentonwoods Limited and Adebanjo are alleged to have conspired within themselves to commit a felony to wit, which is to defraud by selling and converting to their own personal use the proceeds of 537,872 units of Nigeria Breweries Plc’s shares and 21,260 units of Guinness Nigeria Plc’s shares, all valued at N58,461,391.49, belonging to the family of Akin Olugbade.

The statement read in part, “Adebanjo and Brentonwoods, therefore, committed an offence contrary to Section 516 of the Criminal Code Act, laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 and punishable under the same section.

“The offence is alleged to have been committed between 2004 and 2014 in Lagos.”

The acting Director-General, SEC, Ms Mary Uduk, assured investors that the commission would not hesitate to invoke the full weight of the law on any capital market operator involved in fraudulent activities.

Uduk urged investors to take advantage of the various initiatives put in place by the commission to ensure that “proceeds from sale of shares go directly into their accounts to avoid mismanagement by operators.”

She said, “We are doing a lot to boost investors’ confidence and ensure their funds are not mismanaged. We have a number of initiatives that we have put in place to boost investors’ confidence.

“We have the electronic-dividend mandate system, the direct cash settlement, as well as multiple subscriptions in place. We also protect investors through the National Investors Protection Fund, risk-based supervision that enables us to supervise the operators to ensure that they do not do what they are not supposed to do.”