Reports on Tuesday emerged that lawmakers in Nigeria have raised the fresh allegations and that the country’s senate was set to investigate the matter.
Senator, Dino Melaye, had earlier made a motion accusing MTN of repatriating the funds over 10 years starting in 2006, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
Four banks involved in the alleged illegal transfers are Citigroup, Standard Chartered, and Nigerian lenders Stanbic IBTC Holdings and Diamond Bank, the Bloomberg report said.
“The allegations made against MTN are completely unfounded and without any merit,” MTN Nigeria CEO, Ferdi Moolman, said in a statement on Wednesday morning.
This is just the latest controversy to hit MTN in Nigeria, its biggest market where it has around 50 million subscribers.
Regulators in Nigeria slapped MTN with a $3.9billion dollar fine last year for failing to meet a deadline to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards.
MTN negotiated with regulators and the Nigerian government and then came to a deal earlier this year to pay 330 billion naira ($1billion) as part of a settlement.
MTN Nigeria also agreed to list the company on the West African nation’s bourse.
