The Managing Director (MD) of Brentonwoods Limited, Samuel Adebanjo and his company have been charged before Justice M.S. Hassan of the Federal High Court 12, Ikoyi Lagos on a two count charge of fraud relating to illegal sale of shares of a client.
According to the court, the crime is said to have been committed between 2004 and 2014 in Lagos state.
Recall that the Acting Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mary Uduk, had on different ocassions told investors that the commission will not waver in invoking the full weight of the law on any capital market operator that is caught in fraudulent activities.
Uduk 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 (EDMS), the Direct Cash Settlement (DCS)as well as multiple subscriptions in place.”
“We also protect them through the National Investors Protection Fund (NIPF), risk based supervision that enables us to supervise the operators to ensure that they do not do what they are not supposed to do. And again the Complaints Management Framework (CMF) enables investors to know where to complain to and how long it takes for such complaints to be resolved.”
Details of the case
Brentonwoods Limited and Samuel Adebanjo were accused of conniving within themselves to swindle by selling and modifying to their own personal use the profit of 537,872 Units of Nigeria Breweries Plc shares and 21,260 Units of Guinness Nigeria Plc shares all prized at N58,461,391.49 belonging to the family of Akin Olugbade.
This offence contradicting to Section 516 of the Criminal Code Act, laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 and punishable under the same Section.