- MTN Group (OTCPK:MTNOY) is off 2.9% in U.S. trading today after a Bloomberg report found a Nigerian lawmaker saying the carrier may have illegally moved way more than $14B out of the country.
- “We have realized from preliminary investigations that it is actually outrageously higher" than that original estimate, says Dino Melaye, the senator who pressed allegations that the company was moving funds out.
- Nigeria has tried to impose fines on MTN -- first for $5.2B, then for $3.9B, before the company agreed to pay 330B naira (about $1.1B) tied to the company's missed deadline on disconnecting unregistered SIM cards amid an insurgency. The company's market value has halved since the fine issue came up a year ago.
- Shares dropped to a six-year low in Johannesburg.