All commercial banks in the country are forbidden from releasing or otherwise dealing with any funds or assets owed to Chinmark Group Limited and three other parties by an order of Mareva injunction issued by the Lagos State High Court, sitting in Osborne, Ikoyi.

Ijiomah Marksman Chinedu,

The outstanding investments and return on investments that accrued to the applicants from the defendants as of December 30, 2021, were N246,610,000 (two hundred and forty-six million, six hundred and ten thousand naira), and the court granted the order up to that amount.

Stephanie Ohuche, Okonkwo Blessing, Oliver Njoku, and Livinus Chinamere are the claimants/applicants in the case, and they are suing on behalf of themselves and 76 other Chinmark Group Ltd. investors.

The defendants, Chinmark Group Ltd., FinAfrica Invest Ltd., Ijiomah Marksman Chinedu, the chief executive officer of both firms, and his wife, Marksman Uhunoma Trinity, had been brought before the Lagos High Court in Osborne, Ikoyi on charges of running a failed Ponzi scheme.

The claimants charged Ijiomah and the other three defendants for using the investment scheme to defraud thousands of Nigerians out of over N20 billion naira with no intention to reimburse or pay the money back.

Adetunji Adedoyin-Adeniyi, the claimants’ attorney, filed an ex parte petition before Justice Kudirat Jose, who heard it and enjoined the concerned banks from disbursing or handling any funds or assets owed to the defendants from any account kept by any of the affected institutions.

The affected banks are Guaranty Trust Bank Limited, Access Bank Plc, Citi Bank Nigeria Limited, Ecobank Nigeria Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, First Bank Of Nigeria Limited, First City Monument Bank Plc, Globus Bank, Heritage Bank Limited, Jaiz Bank, Keystone Bank Limited, Polaris Bank Limited, Providus Bank, Stanbic Ibtc Bank Nigeria Limited, Standard Chartered Bank, Stering Bank Plc, Union Bank Of Nigeria Plc, United Bank For Africa Plc, Unity Bank Plc, Wema Bank Plc And Zenith Bank Plc.

The court also ordered the banks who are holding the funds or assets of all the defendants to file an affidavit before the court to show the balance of the 1st , 2nd, 3rd, and 4th defendants accounts.

For Banks who are not holding any of the defendants’ accounts, the court held that it shall suffice if they send in a letter to the court and the claimant’s counsel saying that they are not holding any such funds or assets.

The court also granted leave to the claimants to serve their Originating Summons and other relevant documents with accompanying exhibits, the Motion on Notice for Mareva injunction; and all other processes that may be issued in the suit on the 3rd and 4th Defendants by way of substituted service; which entails pasting same on the 3rd and 4th Defendants’ last known address in the Ogba area of Ikeja Lagos.

Justice Jose, however, declined to issue a court order prohibiting the defendants from disposing of any property that the claimants can track down and locate while the case is pending or selling, transferring, assigning, or otherwise dealing with it. The court determined that the claimants did not specifically mention any property.