Monday, December 4, 2017

Investigating AG7Global

AG7Global is owned by alleged* fraudster Femi Agunbiade, I have mentioned him before on my blog in both Femi's Rental Scam and Who Is Femi. As well as his brother Jide Agunbiade. (They also go by Olufemi Agunbiade and Olajide Agunbide). I intended to post this along with one of those former postings but as I fell deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole that is AG7Global, I felt it deserved a dedicated post.


First off, when you google AG7Global this is what you get. For a company that claims to be "Toronto's #1 Investment Company" that 2.3 star review is pitiful.

The Google Reviews for AG7Global
 When you look into the reviews you find that there's 2 one star reviews that appear to be from victims of Femi's rental scam. There is also a 5 star review left by a "George Farga", which appears to be a fake account since it has had no activity either before or after leaving this review.

AG7Global's homepage

AG7Global claims to have a "Proven Track Record" and tries to prove that claim with images of lavish homes, along with the amount of money invested and what their return on investment was. They also say these are projects from 2016. However when you reverse image search the images provided you are given a different story. (Note: Some of the photos appear to have no internet trace aside from AG7Global's website itself.)


The photo of the house in the middle as seen above, is actually stolen from a real estate listing from 2017, as seen below.


This quickly becomes a trend, with almost all of the images being stolen from real estate listings online. No mention of AG7Global, or Femi / Jide Agunbiade. 

AG7Global stole this from Realtor Paul Nusca

AG7Global stole this from Lovvett Homes Realty
Often times the amount AG7Global claims to have invested into the project, is just slightly below what the home sold for. In the above example they claim to have invested $959,000 - but the house only sold for $999,999. When you factor in taxes and real estate fees you're looking at a very slim profit. 

Last but not least, this strange looking project AG7Global claims to have funded...
The two on the sides have no internet presence I could find, however the one in the middle...

A quick reverse image search brings up multiple mentions of the creative project, none of which mention AG7Global, or Femi Agunbiade, or Jide Agunbiade.


It was designed by Batay-Csorba Architects, in collaboration with some other groups... None of them being AG7Global. Despite not being funded by the fraudulent company that is AG7Global, it is a very cool project and you can read more about it: Here

Overall, it seems that everything Femi Agunbiade and Jide Agunbiade have to their names online is part of an elaborate scam. Hopefully this serves as a reminder to always do your thorough research on anybody you plan to give your money to. Things aren't always what they appear to be on surface level. 

Once again, if you have been involved in any of the scams Femi Agunbiade and Jide Agunbiade have been running please contact Toronto Police, Division 22. Phone: 416-808-2200 or in person at 3699 Bloor St. W, Toronto, ON.

UPDATE: As of December 12th 2017, AG7Global's website has been deactivated.

SECOND UPDATE: As of January 28th, Google has removed AG7Global AND AG7Media as business locations from search results.


JULY 2018 Update:


I was doing some more browsing and came across an article from "DigitalJournal" claiming to be a Press Release, promoting AG7Global.

AG7Global Press Release part 1
*Credit due to WaybackMachine

AG7Global Press Release part 2
*Credit due to WaybackMachine

AG7Global Press Release part 3
*Credit due to WaybackMachine

I contacted DigitalJournal immediately, asking them if they had done any research into AG7Global before posting the article, and sent them the link to the Global News segment about Femi/Jide's Alleged* Rental Fraud Scam. 

The article was removed within 24 hours, but I never heard back from DigitialJournal regarding my message, or why they removed the post. When you follow the link now you are greeted by the following page. 

The article has been entirely removed from the website
Hence why I went through WaybackMachine to obtain proof of the original posting. 

Who Is Femi (Olufemi) Agunbiade

After being outed as an alleged* scammer and fraudster, I decided to dig a little deeper into just who Femi Agunbiade is. When you google his name, nothing suspicious pops up - or so it seems. Sadly, I didn't document everything in time and some pages have since been removed from the web, but here is everything I could find.

July 2018 UPDATE: While evading arrest in Toronto for multiple counts of real estate fraud, he was busy launching a new blog and website. It looks like Femi is back up to his old tricks, he is now claiming to be a consultant for realtors looking to make more money. The Closers Consultant

Alleged* Scammer Femi Agunbiade has started a new business



The first result is AG7 Media, an internet marketing company owned by Femi Agunbiade and his brother Jide Agunbiade.

AG7Media in Google
Everything looks normal here, however the address listed for the building isn't correct. While the building does exist, there is no (nor has there ever been) a unit for AG7Media. Nor does Femi or Jide rent any portion of the building.

AG7 Media's Homepage
AG7 Media claims to be a digital marketing company, that will help increase traffic to your business related website. A really great way to increase organic traffic to your website is to get caught defrauding people of thousands of dollars... But I don't think that's what they meant here.

Femi's Page on AG7Media
Femi claims he is a "Google Partner". However, his website doesn't show the Google Partner logo. So while he may have signed up with Google's Partnership program, he didn't meet the qualifications. There is also no way to validate any of his business claims, but we'll get to that next.

Testimonials from AG7Media
There is a long list of Testimonials from many individuals on AG7Media's website. However, the majority of them seem to be fake reviews. The images and names are real, but they belong to people who likely have no idea who Femi is, nor have they ever worked with him. They range from people in Italy, the UK and the USA. I have messaged several (who still have active social media pages) but no response.


The second result is the LinkedIn page for Femi Agunbiade.

Femi's Linked In Profile
Shortly after the Global News segment went live, Femi's LinkedIn profile was deactivated. He links to this one directly from his website, but when you click the link this is the page you are greeted with.


Global News Report

Femi's Instagram page
Next up is Femi's personal Instagram page. It has only been active for a year, and is filled with images stolen from the internet of luxury watches, cars and mansions. None of the photos posted are his own. Notice how he only follows 3 people, but has a following of almost 5000? His posts get approximately 100 likes and average 20 comments each. But when you look closer...

Every photo is filled with comments like this
Every posting is filled with generic comments and the fire emoji is prevalent. It is the same story for each of the postings he's made. The high followers but low interaction numbers indicate that Femi has bought fake followers from a clickfarm to artificially boost his follow count.

Google Results for AG7 Global

Finally, Femi claims he and his brother also own AG7Global. A real estate investment firm that claims to have helped dozens of projects in Toronto and in Texas. However, this also seems suspicious. It's the same story as AG7Media regarding the fake address. But for "Toronto's #1 rated investment company" that 2.3 star review is comical.

The Google Reviews

The only reviews are from victims of Femi's rental scam, along with a random review from "George Frega" who has only ever made the one review and also appears to be a fake account. For a claimed multi-million dollar investment firm with dozens of successful projects you would expect to see more reviews.



That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to AG7Global, since the post was getting a bit long I decided to do a dedicated post to just the company itself. You can see that here: AG7Global





Toronto Condo Scam: Westlake Condos Etobicoke

http://www.condominiumtoronto.com
Like many others across Ontario and beyond, Claire Hay was looking to rent a Condo unit in Toronto. Realizing the pricing was slightly out of her budget, she set her sights upon the Greater Toronto Region. After countless hours browsing rental sites like Kijiji, she finally found a place that seemed perfect. Unit 814 in Westlake Condos, $1300 a month for a 1 bedroom 1 bathroom all inclusive condo with a great view. She booked an appointment to view it immediately.

A video Femi sent to potential renters, featuring a short tour of the condo unit. A female, identified as Femi's girlfriend, Jaclyn Appugliesi can be seen in the kitchen.


Photo of Femi Agunbiade
From his site AG7Media


The day of the condo tour everything seemed great, Claire met a man who introduced himself as Femi Agunbiade, the owner of the condo. She fell in love with the place and was told  if she could eTransfer first and last months payments she could move in the following week. She obliged and eTransfered Femi Agunbiade $2600 that day.


Femi keeping up the Charade via Text

Over the following days everything seemed to be perfect, Femi kept up communication with Claire, claiming to have rented the moving elevator for her and going above and beyond to make her move as seamless as possible. However, things were about to change drastically.


Claire's Facebook Posting

Claire found another advertisement for the very same condominium unit she had already paid for on Kijiji. She had a friend message the poster and it turned out to be Femi Agunbiade, attempting to schedule a viewing for the condo. Claire became suspicious after she was unable to contact Femi over the phone so she showed up at the concierge desk and asked about the unit. Quickly she became aware that Femi Agunbiade was renting the unit himself, and he had no authority to rent the unit out to anyone.



Femi asks for an Apology and removal of the posting
Immediately Claire reached out to a Toronto Renter's Facebook group, asking if anyone else had contact with Femi and/or the specific condo unit.  She never could've predicted what would happen next. Along with a dozen or so messages from people claiming they also had spoken with Femi about renting the very same unit, Femi himself reached out to her and promised to return her money if she would remove the post.
The eTransfer came through minutes after they arranged to meet in person



Luckily, Claire was able to get her money back. However, once she got her money back she filed a fraud report with the Toronto Regional Police. She was notified that a complaint against Femi Agunbiade was made several months ago but nothing came of it due to a lack of evidence. Claire now had evidence to give the officers and help build the case. She also posted the exchange to the Facebook group.

Media outlets started contacting her after seeing her story play out through the Facebook group which has over 100,000 members. The story quickly gained traction and was the top story at 6PM with Global Media.


Global News Report

The media latched onto the story, and thanks to some impressive investigative work it quickly spiraled into a much larger situation than anyone could've predicted. After interviewing Claire as well as a couple other people who claimed they had also had contact with Femi Agunbiade, it was revealed that his brother Jide Agunbiade was also involved in the scam. There were not one but two condo units being used in the scam, one being rented by Femi and the other being rented by Jide, both within the same complex but in different towers.

If you viewed (and/or paid for) the Westlake Condos owned by either Jide or Femi please contact the Toronto Regional Police Department Here The case is under Division 22's jurisdiction, you can contact them by phone: 416-808-2200 or in person at 3699 Bloor St. W, Toronto, ON. The case is being managed by Constable Cornelus Gutter of the Fraud department, and he can be reached directly at cornelus.gutter@torontopolice.ca


It appears as though Femi and Jide are not new to defrauding people of their money, through research I was able to uncover not one but two fraudulent companies run by the brothers. Read more on those here: AG7Media & AG7Global

After the news went public, both Femi and Jide cleared out their storage lockers and skipped town. If you see these men, please don't hesitate to contact police.

July 2018 Update

A warrant was issued and Femi was arrested upon re-entering Canada. He posted bail and a court date will be set.