Perhaps shares of Tingo Group (TIO) should change their ticker symbol to "NGMI" because that seems to be the prevailing sentiment this morning after short seller Hindenburg Research released a report calling the company "a worthless and brazen fraud that should serve as a humiliating embarrassment for all involved."

Shares were down nearly 50% heading into the cash open:

The claims in the report are astonishing, with Hindenburg taking shots at the company's founder, “Dozy” Mmobuosi, and calling its financials fabricated. 

"We’ve identified major red flags with Dozy’s background. For starters, he appears to have fabricated his biographical claim to have developed the first mobile payment app in Nigeria. We contacted the app’s actual creator, who called Dozy’s claims 'a pure lie"," Hindenburg writes. 

"We strongly suspect Tingo’s cash balance, which it conveniently claims is held in Nigeria, is fake. The company collected only ~12% of the interest income one would expect from its claimed cash balances," they continue. 

The report takes exception with Tingo's financials, indicating that it believes the numbers are fake:

The company took shots at a recent "groundbreaking" the company supposedly held:

Hindenburg also takes shots at each of Tingo's business segments.

"Tingo claimed in its reverse merger press release that members of 2 unnamed farming cooperatives supply the majority of its then-9.3 million userbase, consisting of local Nigerian farmers. These farmers supposedly form the core of the company’s phone customers and provide the agricultural products used in Tingo’s food processing and trading businesses. A local media outlet identified and contacted the cooperatives. Both said they had never heard of Tingo and had fewer than 100 farmers in each cooperative. Our checks with the Nigerian Communications Commission showed it has no record of Tingo being a mobile licensee at all, despite company claims of having 12 million mobile customers," the short seller writes.

They also took aim at the company's "TingoPay" product:

Hindenburg concludes: "Overall, we think Tingo is a worthless and brazen fraud that should serve as a humiliating embarrassment for all involved. We do not expect the company will be long for this world."