Olam Group has refuted two press stories that claimed its Nigerian businesses and operations were complicit in a multibillion-dollar fraud.
The food and agribusiness giant denied the claims made in the stories published by Daily Nigerian and Prime Business, Africa last week in a filing to the Singapore Exchange, calling them “baseless and inflammatory statements.”
Both media sites had claimed on September 8 and 9 that Olam Nigeria, Olam International, and its related companies were the subject of an investigation by Nigeria’s secret police into an alleged $50 billion in foreign exchange fraud.
According to reports, Olam allegedly imported capital valued at US$34 billion through its special-purpose vehicles into the Central Bank of Nigeria at official prices before selling the foreign currency to other companies at values set by the black market.
According to Olam’s statement, statements to the amounts of US$50 billion and US$34 billion were “manifestly inaccurate and intended to be misleading.”
Along with other charges, the sources claimed that a number of businesses had “fictitious Nigerians as directors” and that investigators had discovered a network of front firms linked to Olam.
Although Daily Nigerian claimed in their report that Olam Nigeria had “fictitious directors” and that it had a “network of shell companies,” Olam Group highlighted that neither of these claims were true.
According to reports, Olam allegedly imported capital valued at US$34 billion through its special purpose vehicles into the Central Bank of Nigeria at official prices before selling the foreign currency to other companies at values set by the black market.
According to Olam’s statement, statements to the amounts of US$50 billion and US$34 billion were “manifestly inaccurate and intended to be misleading.”
Along with other charges, the sources claimed that a number of businesses had “fictitious Nigerians as directors” and that investigators had discovered a network of front firms linked to Olam.
Although Daily Nigerian claimed in their report that Olam Nigeria had “fictitious directors” and that it had a “network of shell companies,” Olam Group also highlighted that both claims were false.
The business headquarters affirmed that Olam Nigeria, a portion of the business, has complied with information requests from Nigerian authorities and will do so in the future.
Shares of the company hit a record low of $1.150 earlier in the session and were down 7.8% at $1.180 as of 06:27 GMT.
Prior to its announcement, the group announced a trading halt. Trading will resume at 2 p.m on Monday.