Nigerian Musician Eldee Exposes Akintoye Akindele As A Fraudster After He Was Scammed By Him

After a significant downturn in his music career and a subsequent relocation from Nigeria, Lanre Dabiri, the Nigerian artist affectionately known as Eldee, has come forward with a revelation about falling victim to a suspected fraudulent venture capitalist named Akintoye Akindele.

Eldee shared this revelation during a discussion on Teju Babyface’s podcast, “King of Talks,” which took place on Wednesday, August 16.

Lanre Dabiri, who spearheaded Trybe Records—an entity that once showcased music luminaries such as Sasha, 2shotz, Dr SID, Abounce, Sojay, K9, along with producers like Sheyman and Sarz—disclosed that it was Sheyman who introduced him to Dr. Akintoye Akindele, the head of Platform Capital.

He further alleged that Akindele’s advisory company, Synergy Capital, procured funds from certain investors under false pretenses. Eldee and his team were led to believe that these funds would be invested in his music career. However, the promised financial infusion never materialized, even as he continued to act as the prominent face and voice of the brand.

“What they do is to look for businesses to invest in. They have people who fund those portfolios,” he said.

“It was music to my ears hearing about a venture capital company, Synergy Capital, showing a desire to partner with Trybe Records to expand the label’s network.

“The thing for me at the time was ‘Oh, you have this thing going on, you got these artists, you’ve got the music, let’s partner and set up a bigger entertainment entity which was IMAN Entertainment.

“It was somewhere along the lines of the kind of expansion I was looking for so I said: ‘Yea, sure’. I already was making moves to blow up what I was doing a little more so it sounded interesting. They said they would put in so so million dollars, do this, do that blab bla. So I am on the board, unbeknownst to me, as it is said, what essentially was happening was him and his partners at the capital advisory firm, had people who were funding what was supposed to be Iman Entertainment.

“However, Iman Entertainment was not getting money but Eldee, who was the face of Trybe and IMAN, was basically everywhere trying to hold it all together,” he said.

He said that the deal with Akindele and his firm affected his life and strained his relationships with friends and family.

“I had to pay money from my pocket, it affected relationships that I had, I get a little emotional about it now. And that’s because there were people caught in-between. The artists, the staff, the businesses, vendors and more. I kept telling them money would come. I had to dip into my accounts in the United States, dip into my accounts in Nigeria.

“Mr Akindele and his partners kept assuring us. Where you were supposed to get $1million, you get $10,000. It went on until he got into trouble and he went on to float another entity to continue his business,” he said.

Eldee said it took him nine months to realise that he was being scammed and when he did, he backed out of the whole deal.

Watch video: