On the morning of March 9, 2026, two currency swap deals were agreed between Plaude Technologies Limited and Zacuten Technologies Limited. The agreement was straightforward: Zacuten would pro
On the morning of March 9, 2026, two currency swap deals were agreed between Plaude Technologies Limited and Zacuten Technologies Limited.
The agreement was straightforward: Zacuten would provide naira, and Plaude would supply the equivalent in US dollars. Within hours, over ₦11.3 billion had left Zacuten’s account. The dollars, in significant measure, never arrived.
What followed over the next eight days would pull in a Federal High Court, ten Nigerian banks, the Nigeria Police Special Fraud Unit, the Department of State Security, Nigeria Immigration, Nigeria Customs, and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Centre in Washington.
At the centre of it all is Olatomiwa Adebayo Idowu, the Beverly Hills-based Chief Executive Officer of Plaude Technologies Limited, a company registered in Nigeria in January 2023 and incorporated in the United States as Plaude Inc., of which Idowu controls 99% of shares.
He is believed to be in the United States, where an active arrest warrant issued by a Nigerian Federal High Court cannot reach him.
Screenshot from the Plaude websiteTechnext sent detailed right-of-reply requests to Idowu and Plaude Technologies and reached out to other named principals. Plaude’s Chief Technology Officer, Dayo Osikoya, spoke briefly with this reporter by phone, acknowledged the payment dispute, claimed the disputed cheque was authentic, and then referred all further enquiries to the company’s lawyers and the police.
No substantive response was received from Idowu or from Plaude as a company before publication. This story will be updated if and when a response is received.
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Two trades, one weekend, ₦11.3bn goneThe transaction is documented across trade confirmations, invoices, and bank records reviewed by Technext.
On March 9, 2026, two trade confirmations were sent to Zacuten Technologies. The first, ticket number ZACTR006NGN, covered USD 5,020,257.54 against ₦7,058,482,097, with settlement due March 12.
The second, ZACTR007NGN, covered USD 3,014,255.98 against ₦4,247,086,676, with settlement due March 13. Both trades were executed at a rate of ₦1,406 per dollar. The complainants say they entered the transaction partly on the basis that Plaude had presented itself as a licenced Bureau de Change agent and registered forex trader.
The evidence reviewed by Technext tells a more complicated story as indicated below.
Plaude Technologies received the naira across two of its Nigerian bank accounts, one at Providus Bank and one at First Bank of Nigeria.
What followed from Plaude was a series of partial payments that fell far short of its obligation.
On March 12, Plaude transferred $472,976.87 in USDC, a US dollar-pegged stablecoin, to Zacuten, paying through a crypto channel rather than a conventional bank wire. On March 13, it transferred a further $370,000 in USDC. Total received in digital dollar equivalents: $842,976.87, against a contractual obligation of over $8 million.
On March 17, 2026, Olatomiwa Idowu sent a formal email to Zacuten’s treasury team, addressed to a member of the trading desk and copied to Onyeka Akumah, Plaude’s Chief Commercial Officer, as listed on its public professional profile, and to other parties, including a Zacuten representative.
The email set out what Idowu described as the unwinding terms of the trade. His exact words: Trade Sum, $8,041,708.90. Amount Outstanding, $4,230,000.00 USD. NGN equivalent: ₦5,922,000,000. Refund account: Wema Bank, account number 7650632413, Zacuten Technologies Limited.He then committed to three tranches: ₦100,000,000 confirmed as paid by Zacuten, ₦500,000,000 to be paid after midnight on March 18, and ₦5,322,000,000 to be paid by noon on March 18. Only ₦140,000,000 arrived on March 18.
The rest never came.
“Amount Outstanding: $4,230,000.00 USD. NGN equivalent: ₦5,922,000,000.00.” – According to Olatomiwa Idowu’s email on March 17, 2026.
The March 17 email matters beyond the numbers it contains.
Written before the police petition, before the court order, and before the FBI complaint, it is an acknowledgement from the accused party itself of the full extent of the debt, with specific, time-bound payment commitments that were broken within 24 hours of being made.
Fake cheques and doctored recordsAs the payment deadline passed, Plaude presented instruments the complainants say were fraudulent.
A Banc of California cashier’s cheque, number 1874649, dated March 6, 2026, for $2,780,208, made payable to Plaude Inc, was presented as proof of available funds. A recording of a call between one of the complainants and a Banc of California officer, obtained by Technext, indicates the bank told the caller the instrument was not legitimate.
The caller’s response upon receiving the bank’s answer was to say, simply, “okay, perfect,” and end the call. Technext wrote to Banc of California seeking independent written confirmation and had not received a response as of publication.
When reached by phone, Plaude’s CTO said the cheque was authentic and that the company had deposited it into a newly created account as proof of its validity. He ended the conversation shortly after, referring further enquiries to the company’s lawyers and the police. The cheque predates the March 9, 2026, trades by three days, raising questions about its purpose and the circumstances under which it was presented.
Separately, the complainants shared four payment records from Zenus Bank, each showing a $1,000,000 transfer to Zacuten’s account, totalling $4,000,000, as proof of settlement. All four records carry a posting and settlement date of March 13, 2026. However, the date of payment timestamp on each record reads September 13, 2025, six months before the March 2026 transactions.
The complainants described these as fake telexes.
Crucially, none of the four transfers appear on Zacuten’s own account statement for the period reviewed by Technext, which records all credits to Zacuten’s account between March 1 and April 11, 2026.
Money in, money out: The Providus trailA Providus Bank statement for Plaude Technologies Limited, account number 1305308309, reviewed by Technext and covering March 12 to 18, 2026, reveals a pattern consistent with a pass-through account.
The account opened the period with a balance of ₦62,753,644. Over six days, large inflows arrived from multiple third parties, including Hazelbrooks Global Ltd, AAA Finance and Investment Company Limited, Value Leasing Company Limited, and RIOC Energies Ltd.
Within hours of each inflow, comparable sums were transferred out, primarily to two entities: Craftog International Services and Xakeer Technologies Limited. By March 18, the balance stood at ₦735,743.
Total debits over the six-day period amounted to ₦365,000,461 against credits of ₦302,982,560.
The identity of Craftog International Services and Xakeer Technologies Limited, and their relationship to Plaude Technologies or its principal, could not be established from documents reviewed by Technext.
These questions were included in right of reply requests to Idowu. No response was received.
63 frozen accounts, an arrest warrant, and the FBIThe legal response was swift and multi-fronted.
On March 17, 2026, the Federal High Court in Lagos, presided over by Hon. Justice Ibrahim Ahmad Kala, granted a motion by the Inspector General of Police ordering a Post-No-Debit lien on 63 bank accounts linked to Olatomiwa Idowu, Plaude Technologies Limited, and associated entities, including Applause Global Services Nigeria Limited and several accounts in Idowu’s personal name.
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The accounts span Zenith Bank, GTBank, Access Bank, Wema Bank, Moniepoint, Globus Bank, Providus Bank, Parallex Bank, Stanbic IBTC, and Union Bank. The court also ordered the blacklisting of Idowu’s Bank Verification Number on a Category 99 watchlist, with the order set to lapse on July 17, 2026.
Two days later, on March 19, the Nigeria Police Special Fraud Unit Financial Malpractices Investigation Unit, signed by Deputy Commissioner of Police Sirajo Salisu Malumfashi, wrote simultaneously to the Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, the Director-General of the Department of State Security, and the Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs.
All three letters requested the watchlisting and arrest of Idowu at all Nigerian ports of entry, referencing an active Federal High Court arrest warrant.
On March 26, 2026, Godsreal Ojinaka of Zacuten Technologies filed a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Centre. The complaint names Idowu as the sole signatory on all Plaude bank accounts, lists his US address as 307 N Almont Drive, Beverly Hills, California 90211, and states that he has an active arrest warrant in Nigeria and is believed to be intentionally remaining in the United States to evade it.
Plaude had previously presented a FinCEN Money Service Business licence, number 31000289167537, to establish credibility with the complainants. Technext could not independently verify this licence number on the FinCEN public registry.
Available information indicates Plaude holds a Money Service Business registration in Canada, not the United States, though the Canadian registration was not independently confirmed by this reporter.
A corporate web across 2 continentsCAC filings reviewed by Technext show that Plaude Technologies Limited, registered in Nigeria in January 2023, is majority-owned by Plaude Inc., a US company, which holds 2,499,000,000 of its 2,500,000,000 shares.
Idowu is the sole active director and person with significant control, holding 99% of voting rights directly. A second director, Ibukunoluwa Boluwatife Adebayo, was removed on October 27, 2025, leaving Idowu alone at the helm.
The company’s CAC-registered email uses an Applause Global Services domain, [email protected], connecting it to an older corporate vehicle.
Idowu also holds significant control over Applause Global Services Nigeria Limited, a company registered since 2011. He holds 72 million of its 100 million shares and the right to appoint or remove a majority of its directors, a position he assumed on August 25, 2024.
On September 11, 2024, two of Applause Global Services’ original directors resigned and were replaced by two members of the Idowu family: Obiageli Obianuju Idowu, his wife, who holds 25 million shares and was appointed that same day, and Oluwamayowa Toluwaleke Idowu, who holds 3 million shares, also appointed that day.
The simultaneous departure of unrelated directors and their replacement by family members on the same date is a pattern that appears to consolidate control of the company within the Idowu family.
The March 17 email from Idowu was copied to Onyeka Akumah, listed as Plaude's Chief Commercial Officer on its public professional profile. Akumah is known in Nigerian tech circles as the founder of Farmcrowdy and VConnect.His presence on the March 17 email chain places him at the executive level of the transaction at the point where Idowu formally acknowledged the outstanding debt and committed to a repayment schedule.
Technext sent Akumah a message asking him to confirm his role at Plaude and whether he had any comments on the company’s situation. No response was received.
No Nigerian licence to operateThe complainants claimed that they entered the transaction partly because Plaude presented itself as a licenced BDC agent and registered forex trader. The CAC records tell a different story.
Plaude Technologies Limited’s registered principal business activity is listed simply as a technology company. It holds a Money Service Business registration abroad but does not appear on the CBN’s registry of licenced Bureau de Change operators.
Under Nigerian law, entities conducting commercial foreign exchange transactions are required to hold a CBN BDC licence. Plaude conducted over ₦11 billion in currency swap transactions in Nigeria without regulatory authorisation to do so, operating in a financial services space its own registration did not cover.
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Plaude’s responseTechnext sent detailed right-of-reply requests to Olatomiwa Idowu at [email protected], [email protected], and via WhatsApp.
A message was sent to Onyeka Akumah via WhatsApp asking him to confirm his role and comment on the company’s situation. Technext also contacted Dayo Osikoya, who confirmed himself as Plaude’s Chief Technology Officer in a phone conversation, said the company was doing all it could to resolve the payment dispute, described the Banc of California cheque as authentic, said it had been successfully deposited into a newly created account, and then referred all further enquiries to the company’s lawyers and the police.
The right of reply deadline elapsed. No substantive written response was received from any Plaude principal. This story will be updated when a response is received.
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