backOn September 30, 2024, the SEC filed a Complaint against Olayinka Oyebola and his accounting firm, Olayinka Oyebola & Co. (the “Firm”), alleging that Oyebola and the Firm aided and abetted a securities fraud perpetrated by their client, Mmobuosi Odogwu Banye, and three of Mmobuosi’s entities. The Complaint brings claims for aiding and abetting violations of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act and Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act, as well as a claim for aiding and abetting Mmobuosi’s violation of the lying to auditors provisions of Exchange Act Rules 13b2-2(a) and (b). In August, the SEC obtained a $250 million default judgment against Mmobuosi and his entities after filing a Complaint alleging that Mmobuosi and the entities engaged in a years-long scheme to inflate the entities’ financial results by recording billions of dollars’ worth of fabricated transactions, non-existent assets and revenues, and fake cash balances.
The Complaint alleges that Oyebola and his Firm aided and abetted the fraudulent scheme while serving as external auditor for the operating subsidiary of all three of Mmobuosi’s entities. Specifically, the SEC alleges that Oyebola deliberately failed to take action upon learning that Mmobuosi and his entities created multiple fake audit reports bearing Oyebola’s signature and included them in SEC filings as though they were issued by the Firm. The SEC also alleges that Oyebola made material misstatements to the then-auditor of one of Mmobuosi’s entities about the source of falsified bank records and that both Oyebola and the Firm helped Mmobuosi conceal that the fraudulent audit reports were fake.
The Complaint seeks civil penalties and injunctive relief permanently barring Oyebola and his firm from acting as auditors or accountants for U.S. public companies or otherwise providing substantial assistance with the preparation of financial statements with the SEC.