You are a fraud, US based lawyer tells former Anambra CP, Adeoye

…..calls for investigation, trial

By Samuel Ogunsona

The Former Commissioner of Police in Anambra State, Mr Aderemi Adeoye, has been described as a fraud.

A United States based Attorney, Mr Ayo Turton said the former CP violated professional ethics and police rule by setting up a scheme aimed at exploiting many Nigerians.

He described the Multi-billion-naira cooperative as a “Ponzi Scheme.”

The US lawyer accused the retired police officer of diverting funds under Alpha Trust Investment Club (ATIC), which he described as a supposed “cooperative society”.

According to Mr.Turton, the former CP in 2018 projected himself on Facebook as a do-good police officer who stood for fairness and fought for the needy.

He said he was one of those fleeced by the CP.

He the former CP inserted himself into every popular conversation on social media, did several updates, and advertised himself and his exploits in arresting bad guys while flaunting his his tour of duty to Ethiopia.

He said “around late 2017 or early 2018 thereabouts projecting himself as a do-good police officer who stands for fairness and fights for the little guys, we let down our guards and welcomed him wholeheartedly into our lives” He stated.

He said all unsuspecting followers applauded him.

Turton said unfortunately, he was only grandstanding, and users did not realize that he was only preparing the grounds for executing his own hidden agenda.

He said by the time many realised his plan, it was already too late.

Turton said “Riding on the waves of his popularity, Mr. Aderemi Olufemi Adeoye, the recently retired commissioner of police in Anambra state, proposed that we open a Co-Operative Society to invest in real estate and the stock market. This was a welcome idea, especially for many of us in the diaspora who have been looking for dependable people back home to do business with.

“We believed that with a man of the rank of Commissioner of Police maintaining an oversight and ensuring compliance in such a venture, it would be difficult for fraudsters to elope with our money. How wrong we were! We were worried about the dogs because of the sign that says “beware of dogs” when we should have actually been more worried about the deadlier owner of the dogs.

“He gathered some of his friends on Facebook sometime around mid – or late 2018 and started what he called Alpha Trust Investment Club (ATIC), a supposed co-operative society. I joined a few months later in 2019. Part of the early signs of dysfunctionality in the operation of the so-called Co-operative Club was a lack of transparency and structure.

“I would like to make it abundantly clear that it was not our intention to give money to Mr. Adeoye to manage, knowing it was against the civil service rules for him to do so. Our understanding was that Mr. Adeoye and members registered a co-operative society where people with knowledge of financial and investment matters would constitute an investment committee to manage the portfolio.

“We also believed that a serving senior police officer with all his claims to integrity would know not to get involved with the running of a commercial venture. Our intention was to have him in an advisory role and to ensure legal compliance.

“The more we looked, the more we discovered that Mr. Adeoye had in fact appropriated everything to himself and was running the project like a one-man show. Whoever asked him any questions that he did not like was quickly labeled as a “rebel” “renegade” “toxic” etc. Any further questioning would earn the person a Facebook blocking from the platform, which he calls “expulsion.” He routinely handed out expulsion as the accuser, the prosecutor, and the judge.

“Adeoye is the only one who was in the business of collecting money from depositors, and you will have to produce your own statement of account as proof that you had money there. The outfit has zero institutional records. If you couldn’t produce a receipt of deposit, to him then you had no money in that project. It is like putting your money into a slot machine (kalokalo). Slot machines do not issue receipts.

“The more we looked, the more we discovered that Mr. Adeoye had in fact appropriated everything to himself and was running the project like a one-man show. Whoever asked him any questions that he did not like was quickly labeled as a “rebel” “renegade” “toxic” etc. Any further questioning would earn the person a Facebook blocking from the platform, which he calls “expulsion.” He routinely handed out expulsion as the accuser, the prosecutor, and the judge.

“Adeoye is the only one who was in the business of collecting money from depositors, and you will have to produce your own statement of account as proof that you had money there. The outfit has zero institutional records. If you couldn’t produce a receipt of deposit, to him then you had no money in that project. It is like putting your money into a slot machine (kalokalo). Slot machines do not issue receipts.

“Mr. Kalokalo was always online for 24 hours to respond to posts that he did not like by harassing and bullying the person but always very “busy” when the issues centered around accountability.”

Ayo also mentioned that questions were being raised on why a website had not been set up since most of the activities were carried out online.

He said, “People were asking questions about how a multi-billion Naira investment depended solely on Facebook pages that could be shut down at any time by the owners for whatever reason. His response was always that we were building it. Six years later, we were still building a website. Even a high school graduate knows that it takes only between 24 to 48 hours to set up a functional website.

“We thought that with a website, it would be easy to allocate portals to members where they can verify the status of their investments rather than waiting for Mr. Adeoye to come to the Facebook page to announce whatever suited his fancy for each day, and we must accept it as the gospel truth. If you complain, then you were quickly targeted and labeled any variety of names with his “caustic” fingers.

“Nothing moved forward when Mr. Adeoye was not available to answer questions concerning people’s investment. Therefore, people requested that we open a physical office and that a multi-billion Naira investment was big enough to provide job opportunities for at least two or three mid-level staff to take care of clerical matters, like administrative and accounting clerks for the company.

“He ignored the demands and created excuses because he had too much to hide. He claimed that we were making money and paying “dividends” every year but couldn’t afford to pay the salaries of two essential staff? It did not make sense to many of us. This became one of the earliest red flags.”

“But what we got was a complete deviation from the promises and what we agreed on,” he said.

“Towards the objective, we were told that a co-operative club known as Alpha Trust Investment Club (ATIC) had been registered. So, when we were presented with Guaranty Trust Bank account nomenclature starting with ATIC by Mr. Adeoye, to pay money into, with the full name of ATIC Venture and Business Services, we did not have any reason to suspect any foul play.

“As it would turn out after investigation, we discovered that Mr. Adeoye and his two co-conspirators did not register any co-operative society with the Corporate Affairs Commission and under the Nigerian Co-operative Societies Act. What Mr. Adeoye registered was a personal business organization with three of them, himself, one Babatunde Olanrewaju, and one David Egbele as the Proprietors.

“Mr. Adeoye cleverly used the acronym of the supposed co-operative, ATIC, to register a private partnership with two others to evade suspicion and used the bank account of the private company to obtain several billions of Naira from unsuspecting members. This is a classic example of “Obtaining By False Pretense” under Section 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code.

“This information is in the database of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) available online for anyone to verify. In a TV interview, Mr. Adeoye claimed that the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) did not accept the name Alpha Trust Investment Company/Club for registration. He then registered ATIC Venture and Business Services. That is so kindergarten. Who changes a cooperative outfit to a personal business just because the name was not available? What about using other acceptable names?”

Ayo in his statement accused Mr Adeoye of taking money from several individuals assuring them of 10% monthly ROI after investing it in crypto currency.

According to him, ROI is guaranteed “come rain or shine” with a minimum of one million naira (N1 million) deposit each.

Ayo said, , “He collected money running into hundreds of millions of Naira with this promise. Like a typical Ponzi operator, he paid them for the first month to attract more victims, but he has since stopped paying. Neither the interests promised nor the capital that he took has been paid back as of the time of authoring this article.

“It is going to be three years now that some of our members have put their hard-earned money, some retirement money, and some loans into the slot machine called Remi Adeoye personal venture with no returns. One of our members who took home equity loan and gave it to Adeoye on the promise of 10% monthly ROI may become homeless soon in the cold winters of Europe.”

He continued, “Mr. Remi Adeoye showed up sometime in 2021 and told people that one Siji Ogundele who is also known as Sujimoto, a property developer in Lagos has a project in Banana Island and convinced some members into putting their monies into the off-plan project, with a promise that their investment would give a return of 400% in two years when the building would be completed.

He accused the former CP of collecting over One Billion Naira (N1b) from members for the project.

He said no one saw the evidence of payment to the Sujimoto guy nor the contract that he signed despite repeated demands.

He said it has been three years, and not even a foundation existed at the site adding that some of the investors who are lawyers asked to review the contract to see if there were any provisions in it that could offer the depositors an opportunity to opt out and make claims.

He said it was like asking Mr. Adeoye to produce the birth certificate of Father Abraham in the Bible even though the developer was in breach, if there was ever a fair contract,
Mr. Adeoye would turn around and threaten members that they would lose 30% of their deposits if they ever requested a refund. It is strange that he chooses to defend the developer at breach against his innocent victims.

Turton said the former CP once promised investors that the 30% penalty would not be applicable to them in case of premature withdrawal.

He said It is, therefore, appalling that he turned around to say that the investors would pay 30% penalty, even where the developer was clearly the one in breach.

He said investors are still demanding to see the terms of the contract and evidence of payments made to the developer from him to no avail.

While defending himself in a recent TV interview, former CP Adeoye said all he did was legal and within the prism of law. He said his group expelled about 33 members who he described as “renagades”

He said the company was registered and operated within existing laws of Nigeria