Fraud: Fresh Appeal To IG, PSC To Probe Anambra CP, Adeoye Over Alleged N20Bn Fraudulent Ponzi Scheme

Posted by African Examiner Exclusive Reports, Exclusive/Investigative Stories, Featured, Latest Headlines, News, News Across Nigeria Monday, February 19th, 2024

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The current serving Commissioner of Police in Anambra state, Mr Aderemi Adeoye has been accused of defrauding some Nigerians at home and in the diaspora of about 20 billion naira in a fraudulent ponzi scheme.

Mr Adeoye is said to have set up a cooperative group called Alpha Trust Investment Club (ATIC) in 2019 and recruited unsuspecting members of the public from Facebook with the intention to allegedly defraud them.

African Examiner gathered that members of the club are advised to contribute money collectively for investments – And to buy landed properties, as well as other ventures in which the profit will be shared according to their investments, though huge amounts of money were contributed, many members never received any landed properties nor return on their investments.

It is estimated that the club’s income is worth about N20 billion naira in members’ contributions.

However, according to a group of 33 members, many of them from the diaspora, who petitioned the Inspector General of Police, and the Police Service Commission (PSC), the 20 billion naira cooperative club has no physical address, no website, no staff, and no documentation relating to individual purchases through the club, and no record of their collective assets available to them.

A member of the group who spoke to African Examiner narrated how Mr Remi Adeoye would bully and harass members who questioned him on the way he is running the club like a personal business. In many cases such disagreements with him, will earn such members a unilateral expulsion without refunding their contributions and investments, a situation that makes many members scared to question him over fear of expulsion and thus losing their money.

It was also gathered that members have even advised him even to no avail to step aside from running the business being a police officer who is not legally allowed to operate a commercial venture while serving.

Furthermore, below is the story of the concerned 33 members who are again appealing to the IG and Police Service commission (PSC) to probe Mr Remi Adeoye alleged Ponzi Scheme, with a view to recovering the billions of naira invested in the club…

“Sometime around 2017, we became “friends” with Mr Adeoye on the Facebook social media site. At the time, he was serving in the African Union on secondment from Nigeria. He endeared himself to us and many others by projecting himself as a champion for victims of fraud and an upright man.

“Often, he claimed to have come to the aid of persons who had been defrauded on Facebook. He got many accolades from many of us for these claims. As time will show, these claims were a deliberate and well-planned effort by him to win the trust of many of us on Facebook as a precursor to launching his grand scheme.

“Riding on his popularity, sometime in 2018, Mr Adeoye approached a group of his friends on Facebook, including some of the undersigned, and informed us about the setting up of a cooperative investment club.

“His idea was that members of the cooperative club will pull funds together to invest in various products and platforms and profits will be shared based on the investments made by each member. He also suggested that members can get bargain prices by buying landed properties together in a large group.

“His suggestion was welcomed by many of us, especially those in the diaspora. It was seen as an opportunity to invest in Nigeria and, as it is fronted and led by a senior Police Officer, such investments can be done in an atmosphere of trust and confidence. Indeed, the trust level of Mr Adeoye was so high and the attraction of his suggestion was so strong that initial payments for investments were made directly to his personal bank account.

“Subsequently, when the club was set up with the name of Alpha Trust Investment Club, ATIC. A bank account in the name of a company called ATIC Ventures and Business was created solely by Mr. Adeoye and payments were now routed through that bank account and other subsidiary accounts related to it set up by him. This registration brought the Club under Corporate and Allied Matters Act law of the federation.

“From its inception in 2018, the Club began to grow with members’ funds. By 2019, new members were added to the Club. This swelled the total membership to more than 400. This trend of admitting new members each year continued. By 2023, there were more than 1,400 members in ATIC.

“Also, in May 2020, ATIC was formally registered as a Cooperative with the Lagos State Government as a Cooperative Multipurpose Society. This also brought it under regulatory laws governing Cooperative Societies in Lagos and Nigeria.

Operations Of ATIC Cooperative Society

“In accordance with the laws guiding Cooperatives, members expected that ATIC would set up structures in compliance with the laws and that Mr. Aderemi Adeoye would only stand in an advisory role and ensuring compliance as a serving public servant.

“To this end, a “Board of Trustees” and an “Executive Management Committee” were purportedly set up. However, it soon became clear that ATIC structures were only in name, as Mr Adeoye warehoused and controlled the Club and ran it like a personal business.

“Demands for transparency and accountability were routinely ignored or shouted down. Club structures were rendered redundant, access to information was denied and threats were routinely used to keep members silent.

“To compound matters, investments made by members were shrouded in secrecy and opacity, with no clarity in sums invested, contracts entered with third parties, and decision-making processes that lead to investments. All these and more have led to the resignation of some of the members of the so-called “BOT” and our desire to seek your intervention to save us from monumental losses arising from one man’s devious plans.

“For investments, members are informed of opportunities such as stock investments, land purchase and cryptocurrency investments. These investment opportunities are offered to members routinely. In 2023, Mr Adeoye stated that ATIC has investments worth over N20 Billion.

Our Complaints

“Our complaints center on a lack of accountability, lack of proper structure, gross abuse of powers, intimidation, arbitrary punitive actions against members, negligence of duty, and a failure to adhere to regulatory requirements. All of these have cost members dearly.

Our various complaints are as follows:

“Refusal to Set Up Investment Committee: Recognizing that a serving Police Officer cannot run a commercial and investment entity like ATIC, we sought for the setup of an Investment Committee to be responsible for taking investment decisions for the benefit of members. Mr Adeoye flatly refused to do so and thereby opened the Club to flouting existing government regulations and the Code of Conduct Act as it relates to a public servant.

“Conversion of Board of Trustees to an “Advisory” Role: Despite extant regulations about the roles of the Board of Trustees of a Cooperative, Mr Adeoye relegated members of the BOT from decision- making and stated that they were only an Advisory Board of Trustees (ABOT). This goes against all known Corporate Governance structures and operations and, in effect, makes him the Sole Administrator of ATIC.

“Arbitrary Removal of Members from Club: As stated earlier, he runs the Club like a Sole Administrator. Members who raise questions about anomalies or seek more transparency and accountability are automatically removed from the Club, without paying them their entitlements and a refund of their investments.

“Unauthorized Registration of Club Name and Bank Accounts: Without discussion and approval from members and the BOT, he registered ATIC Business Ventures and similar business names. He then proceeded to open bank accounts for these unauthorized business entities purportedly in the name of the Club. He has never disclosed the signatory or signatories to these bank accounts but routinely asks members to make payments to these accounts. In effect, he uses a personal business account to transact the financial affairs of ATIC.

“Failure to Enact Constitution: Despite several appeals and offers by the many seasoned lawyers in the Club, he adamantly refuses to enact a Constitution for the Club. This deliberate and willful act has allowed him to act without any checks and balances in running the Club while unilaterally imposing sanctions on members who air opinions that may go counter to his position.

“Refusal to Audit the Club Account: He has consistently refused our requests that the accounts of the Club be audited by a qualified firm of auditors. He claims that the Club’s “structure is not set up for audit trails and cannot be audited”. This goes completely against regulatory requirements and leaves the Club at risk of civil and criminal damages. Furthermore, by refusing to have the Club finances audited, he arbitrarily imposes prices of Club shares and pays dividends as it suits him without any scrutiny. This has made it impossible for members to know the exact situation of the financial health of the Club and to use this critical information to make informed investment decisions.

“Operating Ponzi Schemes: He generates unaudited reports showing massive wealth and uses this to attract new members who then must pay to join the Club. He then proceeds to use their money to pay off existing members as “dividends.” He has basically been operating his own personal securities and exchange outfit. He robs Peter to pay Paul.

“Failure to Provide the Number of Issued shares: He has refused to provide the total number of issued and paid shares of the company and the number of shares held by each member. No records on this exist. This has made it impossible to know the worth of the Club. Rather, he declares dividends without showing members how the figures were computed, how much was realized in net profit, how much was put into paying dividends, and what percentage was plowed back into the venture. He is the only one who knows the total number of issued shares, how many people collected dividends, and the total amount paid. When members ask questions, they are labeled as “enemies” “toxic” and are summarily expelled from the Club.

“Failure to Set Up a Website: For more than 4 years, members have requested that a website be set up where information on the Club can be accessed by members and non-members. He has adamantly refused to do so. In effect, he has been running a business worth N20billion on a Facebook page called ATIC Business Lounge.

“Failure to Set Up an Office: He has refused to lease an office and employ at least two medium-level staff to handle administrative and accounting records. So, a Club that is reportedly worth N20billion in investments does not have a physical office, not a single staff member and the President (Mr Adeoye) manually pays over 1,400 people the purported “dividends” which, is actually meant to shut unsuspecting people up for another year and attract new victims.

“Lack of Record Keeping: The Club has zero institutional memory or record. Each time questions are asked about individual records with the Club, members are asked to present their receipts of payments, some of which date back four to five years. Members are asked to provide proof of shares held and assets bought through the Club. If you no longer have the receipts or record, he terms it that you have nothing. No institutional record to refer to. Receipts of payments by the Club are also never issued.

“In the same vein, members have been paying for several plots of land worth several billions of Naira through the Cooperative since 2018. Till date, no documentation relating to ownership has been provided for any of these. To make matters worse, members are never allocated the land for which they have paid. So, they have neither evidence of payment nor physical allocation for their investments.

“Inflation of Land Prices: Mr Adeoye is fond of giving over- exaggerated figures of the worth of land sold to members. On further scrutiny, members end up paying more than other members of the public and the value of the landed properties are nowhere close to his over- bloated figures. He does this to collect more money from people for landed properties that are never delivered anyway.

“AGM Meetings: Mr Adeoye calls for an “AGM” meeting that only ends up as a jamboree of “Rice and Soup Very Plenty.” People who attempt to say things contrary to his wish are in danger of being roughly handled by his retinue of Mobile Police Escorts. None of the resolutions passed have ever been implemented. No financials or audited accounts have ever been presented at such meetings, despite this being the most basic function of an AGM.

“Failure to Perfect Land Holdings of Members: The under- listed landed properties are some of the properties purchased by members in money running into billions. Till date, no documentation has been provided to members who paid for them.

Epe Pavilion – Individuals paid for 500 plots and the Club was supposed to receive a 100 plots bonus attached to the purchase and then allocation made to buyers immediately after full payment. No documentation has been provided and the last thing that we heard was that the land does not exist. A check at the government registry as of the date of this petition corroborates this information as it reveals that no land even in the name of the Club exists on record.
Swiss Luxury Estate – Individual members paid for several plots; no documentation has ever been provided. We are not sure that the land exists.
Miami Beach Estate – Individual members paid for several plots which were supposed to be allocated after purchase. Over three years later, no land and no allocation has been made or provided. Our private investigation reveals that the area is actually under government acquisition.
Jos Land – He collected money from some members that he had secured some plots of land for purchase in Jos. He came back to say the land is not available and that another location would be provided for those who are interested. No new location was provided, those who have requested a refund of their money have received nothing.
Port Harcourt ATIC City – He collected money from members to buy land in a proposed “ATIC City” in Port Harcourt. He came back to say the land was no longer available, that other areas had been provided. Collected subscriptions for the land for 1,500 plots of land, only to turn around and say only 500 plots are available and he has refused to refund people’s money as of the time of writing this petition.
CITA Estate, Ogun State – He got members to buy plots of land in this Estate. Suddenly, without consultation and without any allocation to members who purchased land in the estate, Mr Adeoye converted the said land into a farm.
Shimawa Cape Town and Jerusalem Estates – These were procured by the Club for interested members. However, till date, no documentation and allocation has taken place.

“Failed Banana Island Project – Against the decision of the members that ATIC Estate will be built for commercial purposes, Mr Adeoye decided to unilaterally divert about one billion naira of the Club and individuals’ money into a suspicious Banana Island off-plan property. He told members that it is a two-year project and that after two years the investing individuals would have a return of 400% on their investments. This was in 2020. It has been over three years, and no development has taken place on the land. In over 3 years, roughly N1 Billion Naira of members’ funds have been stuck on this non-existent “project”.

“Shady Crypto Investment – Sometimes in 2022, Mr Adeoye came to tell unsuspecting members that he wanted to place their money in monetized crypto and promised the individual subscribers “10% ROI every month for one year, come rain or shine” (in his expressed words) on the amount of their investments. He paid for one month and has since stopped paying. A scheme that was to last for only 12 months has now gone on for more than 20 months with no information provided to members who invested millions into it. No word on both the capital and interests. This money is running into billions.

“Stock Trading – The members of the Club are yet to be presented with a list of the Club’s investment in Nigeria and New York Exchanges where he claimed he put some of the Club’s money. All efforts to get details from him have proved abortive.

“Bullying of “BOT” Members – When some members of the so called “BOT” that he uses as rubber stamp for his unilateral actions finally had the guts to raise questions about the management of the group’s funds, he told them that he does not have to listen to them and that he is personally responsible for all the funds. He said they are merely advisers and immediately changed the name of the Board to “Advisory Board of Trustees.” When one of the undersigned asked him how a Trustee can be an Adviser, he expelled him from the Club.

“It is not our intention to embarrass this administration which has been trying hard to attract diaspora investments to Nigeria. But our experience with Mr. Adeoye, who is of Commissioner of Police caliber is a very nasty one and has shaken our confidence in the system. We are just a group of professionals and business people spread across the world who are trying to save something for our retirement by investing in our home country and for our kids in their fatherland, based on the trust we had in Mr Adeoye. But he painfully broke the trust.

The Urgency

“We recently learned that Mr Adeoye would be retiring from the Police sometime in March this year. We also learned that he has moved his family out of Nigeria. The 20 Billion Cooperative has no physical address, no website, no staff, and no documentation relating to individual purchases through the Club, no record of our collective assets available to members.

“They are all in the custody of Mr Aderemi Adeoye if they exist at all. The only things that members have as proof of their multi-billion investments are whatever he says and a Facebook page! That Facebook page is at risk of being shut down at any time, and he may become inaccessible after retirement.

Our Requests

“We the undersigned members of the Club with over N500m investment in the scheme repose a lot of confidence in your office and the corruption- fighting stance of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“We are trusting your good office to investigate and take immediate actions on this matter as a primus case involving virtual investment of Nigerians in diaspora to encourage more investment at home, as failure to take a prompt and decisive action in this case would not only lead to further discouragement of diaspora investment in our beloved nation but may cause an untold embarrassment to this administration that is trying so hard to curb corruption in high places, since this matter involves a sitting Commissioner of Police in one of the most volatile states in the country.

“We are requesting that Officer Adeoye be compelled to disengage from running the investments with immediate effect, with an undertaking not to touch or deal in any assets belonging to the Club, since his involvement in the scheme, and dealing in the business as a public servant, in the first place, is prima facially illegal ab initio and as a matter of law.

“That a full audit of his activities be carried out by an independent and reputable audit company and that he be prosecuted if found culpable.

“We are requesting that you place an immediate ban on the following accounts with the underlisted banks into which members have deposited funds at one point or the other, and all accounts in all other banks traceable to the BVNs linked to them because of the possibility of capital flight immediately this becomes public.

Known Bank Account Numbers Into Which We Made Payments:

a). Adeoye Aderemi Olufemi – 0022886922 – GT Bank

b). ATIC Venture and Business – 0529141764 – GT Bank

c). ATIC Ventures Cooperative/Loan – 0557038409 – GT Bank

d). ATIC Stock Exchange Stock Investment – 0625843960 – GT Bank

e). ATIC Investment Membership – 0529141764 – GT Bank

f). ATIC Car Importation – 0557038416 – GT Bank

g). ATIC Special Project (Banana Island) 0610934394 – GT Bank h). ATIC City Port Harcourt – 0662684227 – GT Bank

i). ATIC Real Estate (Land) – 0557038423 – GT Bank

“That you instruct whoever you appoint as the custodian of the accounts to pay the undersigned our invested funds with the promised interests, allocate our land to us immediately or pay us the current fair market value of the landed properties.

“We are mindful of his influence as a sitting Police Commissioner, a position and rank that he has used consistently to intimidate, bully, and threaten those of us who have been bold enough to ask him questions.

“He has boasted to people that he is a senior Police Officer and that as a friend of the Inspector General of Police he is aware of what he is doing, therefore nothing would happen to him. We refuse to believe this. We would greatly appreciate your taking prompt action regarding these accounts pending a resolution of this matter.”

Mr Remi Adeoye, Commissioner of Police Anambra state did not respond to a Whatsapp message sent to him by AFRICAN EXAMINER to react to all the allegations of frauds leveled against him.