A court instructs banks not to release money to the Chinmark Group due to an alleged N20 billion fraud.

 Justice Kudirat Jose of the Lagos State High Court in Osborne issued an order on Tuesday

prohibiting Nigerian commercial banks from disbursing money to the Chinmark Group and three other parties. 

After the defendants were accused of running a failing Ponzi scheme, the judge issued the order. The defendants, according to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, have withheld their outstanding investment and return on investment payments since December 30, 2021.

The 4 claimants filed the lawsuit on behalf of 76 other investors and themselves, saying that Chinmark group defrauded them of N20 billion.

The Background 

The applicants (who had invested in Chinmark Group) filed a lawsuit against the organization, its CEO, his wife, and others in an ex-parte application. They argued that the defendants had duped them. 

They asked the court to issue a Mareva injunction prohibiting the release of any funds or property owned by Chinmark Group Limited and the other parties.

In his ex-parte decision, Justice Kudirat approved the claimants' request for an order preventing commercial banks from disbursing or dealing with money or assets owed to the defendants from any bank they maintain.

According to the Mareva ruling issued by the court, the defendant's accounts holding N246,610,000 were to be frozen by the banks. As of December 30, 2021, the amount represents the outstanding investments and investment returns due to the applicants from the defendants.

The judge further mandated that an affidavit detailing each defendant's account balance be filed by all banks holding monies or assets that belong to the defendants. 

The judge subsequently gave the claimants permission to serve all of their papers on the defendants at their most recent address.

Although the court upheld the Mareva injunction, it declined to issue a ruling prohibiting the defendants from disposing of or otherwise dealing with any property that the claimants may identify while the case is still pending. The claimants did not specify any specific property, according to the court.

What you must understand 

Stephanie Ohuche, Okonkwo Blessing, Oliver Njoku, and Livinus Chinamere are among the claimants. 

The defendants are Ijiomah Marksman Chinedu, CEO of both Chinmark Group Ltd. and FinAfrica Invest Ltd., and Marksman Uhunoma, his spouse.