42-year-old Olasunkanmi Babatunde Ogundipe, the Managing Director of KashZone Fintech Limited, has been charged with obtaining N40.96 million under false pretense before the Tinubu Magistrate’s Court in Lagos Island.
Ngozi Odiakoase and 21 other customers are said to have given Ogundipe the money.
He allegedly took the money from the complainants, Ngozi Odiakoase and 21 others, under the guise of investing it in a successful business and repaying them with interest, according to police.
The operatives of the Police Special Fraud Unit, PSFU, detained and arraigned Ogundipe before the court in Ikoyi, Lagos, on a two-count charge of collecting money under false pretense and stealing.
Police persecuting counsel, Adoga Amedu informed the court in the charge marked S/38/2021 that the defendant committed the offence between 2020 and 2021 at KashZone Fintech Limited in Lagos.
Amedu told the court that the defendant tricked the complainants and collected the sum of N40, 960, 000 from them to invest the money in a lucrative business with the promise to repay them back with mouth-watering interest.
He said Ogundipe failed to pay back the N40, 960, 000 and the interest he promised them and instead escaped before he was arrested at a hideout.
He said the offences, the defendant committed, were punishable under sections 314 and 287 of the Criminal law of Lagos state, 2015.
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Magistrate A.O Awoyinka granted him N1m bail with two sureties in like sum.
Awoyinka adjourned the case till 12 January, 2022 for mention and ordered that the defendant be kept at the Ikoyi Correctional facility till he perfected the bail conditions.