Blog

EOCO Freezes Assets of Defunct Ideal Finance Boss, Nii Kotei Dzani

EOCO INVESTIGATES | Matilda Akakpo | February 19, 2020 | Comment off

The Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), has frozen the assets of Nii Kotei Dzani, a Member of the Council of State and founder and Director of defunct Ideal Finance. According to Citi Business News sources, the action is to among other things intended to find ways to retrieve funds from him to pay back customers whose funds are locked up with the defunct company. EOCO, upon a referral from the Receiver for Ideal Finance, invited Nii Kotei Dzani for questioning on three allegations; GHc 23 million paid to a client, 200 acres of land he allegedly stole from Ideal Finance, and unlawful use of Ideal Finance’s funds to build ‘Camp Tsaetse’, a resort in Ada. According to the Executive Director of EOCO, COP retired Frank Adu-Poku, the assets include vehicles and about 31 bank accounts belonging to him and the Ideal Group. “We went to court and then had judgment for the accounts to be frozen. Right now, we’re trying to get information about other accounts that might not be known to us or which have not come to our notice.” “We’ve also gotten judgment to preserve most of his assets. Vehicles and landed properties of the applicant at Ada and Nii Sai Street, East Legon have also been frozen and confirmed by the court. The office is continuing efforts to track and trace other assets in the form of vehicles, landed properties, and a speed boats belonging to Ideal Finance and Nii Kotei Dzani,” he added. Nii Kotei’s application Mr. Dzani had argued that EOCO was practically harassing him in a manner that made ‘nonsense’ of his status as a member of the council of state. According to him, the receiver in the case of the collapse of defunct Ideal Finance, did not afford him the opportunity to respond to issues against him before referring his case to EOCO to be investigated. He maintained that the referral to EOCO and subsequent invitations made to him to appear before the state agency and his arrest at some point, all amount to harassment and abuse of his constitutionally guaranteed right to presumption of innocence. He prayed the court that, given his reputation in Ghana, both as a member of the Council of State and a prominent businessman, he is due damages for loss of reputation, injury to feeling and false imprisonment. But the court presided by Justice Afia Serwah Asare Botwe ruled that EOCO in its dealings with the Council of State member has been fair and at all times acted within the mandate of its establishing law. According to the court, Mr. Dzani’s position as a Council of State member or as a prominent businessman does not bar him from investigations from properly mandated statutory bodies; thereby dismissing Mr. Dzani’s application for an injunction. The injunction’s dismissal would pave way for the Economic and Organised Crime Organisation (EOCO) to proceed with its investigations of the businessman over allegations of money laundering and tax evasion in the collapse of the finance house.

READ MORE

Amoabeng & Co Get GH¢320m

BOG | Matilda Akakpo | February 14, 2020 | Comment off

The former Chief Executive Officer of insolvent UT Bank which is now defunct, Prince Kofi Amoabeng, and five others charged with their alleged conduct leading to depositors of the bank losing money were yesterday granted a total of GH¢320 million bail by an Accra High Court. The court presided over by Justice Bright Mensah, a Court of Appeal judge sitting with additional responsibilities, gave the six accused persons separate bail terms totalling GH¢320 million because of the circumstances of the case. Main trial The embattled businessman, together with a former 2nd Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Johnson Pandit Asiama, and four of his former employees are before the court facing some 42 charges including causing financial loss to the state. Mr. Amoabeng is alleged to have transferred the investment of some 15 companies totalling GH¢51,334,387.08 and $8,799,917 from UT Bank to UT Holdings, a company he owns without the knowledge and consent of the investors. Dr. Asiama, on the other hand, is accused of allegedly causing financial loss to the state by approving GH¢460 million liquidity support for UT Bank without following laid-down procedures. Apart from Mr. Amoabeng and Dr. Asiama, other persons charged are Raymond Amanfu, former Head of Banking Supervision Department (BSD) at BoG from 2014 to October 2017; UT Holdings Limited (UT Holdings); Catherine Johnson, former Head of Treasury who had also acted as the Head of Corporate Banking of UT and Robert Kwesi Armah, a former General Manager of Corporate Banking of UT. Preferred charges The accused persons are facing a total of 42 charges including fraudulent breach of trust, abetment of crime and causing financial loss to the state. Mr. Amoabeng is also facing charges of fabrication of evidence with intent to pervert justice in a document containing a false statement that an amount of $7,000,000 had been deposited into an escrow account in the name of the Registrar of the High Court with intent to mislead a Justice of the High Court in a judicial proceeding. Bail They pleaded not guilty to all the charges levelled against them. Simon Animley who held brief for Fred Dotse, counsel for Dr. Asiama, prayed the court to grant him self-recognizance bail as he had already been committed to another bail term in a different matter which is before the same court. He said if the court should impose any other bail condition his client has to be in custody during the conduct of the case as he may not be able to meet them. K. Addo Atuah, who is counsel for Mr. Amoabeng, told the court that his client had fully cooperated with the investigative bodies in the matter and he never did anything contrary to the police enquiry bail granted him. He told the court that Mr. Amoabeng was prepared to clear his name hence would make himself available for the trial. Nicole-Marie Poku who held brief for Thaddeus Sory, Counsel for Catherine Johnson, made a humble appeal to the court to consider the situation of her client and grant her bail. She said Mrs. Johnson is a mother and one of her kids is a toddler and would not do anything to jeopardize the trial, adding that when granted bail she would avail herself for the trial. Attorney-General The Attorney-General, Gloria Afua Akuffo, did not oppose the grant of bail but said the terms must commiserate with the charges and the circumstances of the case. Bail Justice Mensah granted Dr. Asiama self-recognizance bail of GH¢60 million while the other accused persons were granted bail of GH¢60 million each with three sureties, two of whom must be justified. The sureties were also to deposit their title deeds with the registrar of the court, while the accused persons were also ordered to deposit their passports with the court registrar. Mrs. Johnson was eventually granted GH¢20 million bail with two sureties. Hearing continues on March 26, 2020.

READ MORE

Customers of Savings & Loans, Microfinance including DKM to get full Payments

BOG | Matilda Akakpo | February 11, 2020 | Comment off

Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, says all customers of defunct savings and loans and microfinance companies will be paid their locked up funds in full, including DKM customers who were affected in 2015. This is the second time a high government official has made the assurance following a directive by President Akufo Addo to the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance, to provide liquidity for the customers to be paid. The Private Enterprise Federation (PEF), has however criticized government for not paying the customers despite these directives. But speaking at a town hall meeting at Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, dubbed “Demonstrating Fulfillment of Our Promises”, Vice President Dr. Bawumia announced that all customers including customers of defunct DKM will also receive their locked up funds in full. “Government has already spent over GHC 13 billion paying depositors of banks and other financial institutions. To add to that, President Nana Akufo Addo gave the assurance in his last Christmas message that no depositor of a Savings and Loans or a Microfinance institution will lose any of their deposits. In line with fairness, we would be doing what we have done for depositors of banks to depositors of Savings and Loans or a Microfinance institutions. Everyone will get 100% of their deposits back. I would also like to add that this refund will also extend to customers of DKM who have not as yet received the full refund of their deposits. We are therefore cleaning up the mess the NDC created in the financial sector.” The challenges with DKM financial services occurred under the previous National Democratic Congress, after customers lost part of their investments following a suspension of the company’s operations by the Bank of Ghana in 2015. The Vice President also said the decision taken by the central bank to clean-up the banking sector was carefully planned and was not done in a haste. He explained that the nine indigenous banks had challenges that threatened the overall health of the banking sector and the Bank of Ghana was justified in its mass closure. He stated that the affected banks have engaged in acts that could be considered fraudulent with some procuring their licenses under fraudulent means coupled with poor corporate governance practices. The weak nature of these banks, he said, threatened more than 4.6 million of depositors with several jobs on the line. He stated that the decision taken by the Bank of Ghana protected the deposits of about 5 million depositors, while jobs were protected due to the creation of the Consolidated Bank to merge seven of the nine banks.

READ MORE

Receiver Accrues GHS2.6 Million from 1st Auction of Seized Cars

BOG | Matilda Akakpo | February 10, 2020 | Comment off

The Receiver for the collapsed microfinance and Savings Loans companies, has raked in about 2.6 million cedis from the auction sale of the first batch of confiscated vehicles owned by the defunct companies. The 5-day exercise is part of efforts to recoup monies to pay affected depositors. A variety of salon cars were put up for auction throughout the week, with a little over 100 cars sold. These comprised vehicles belonging to the defunct companies or in some cases vehicles used as collateral by customers who could not pay off loans granted by the companies. The auctioneers started off the week with a relatively challenging time as some prospective buyers criticized the process and beneficiaries of some of the bids. This prompted a change in pricing with the introduction of a reserved price, below which no car will be sold. Again, the payment process was reviewed from a two-hour window of ready cash payment to approximately five hours, after which a bidder loses his or her bid. Spokesperson for the Receiver, Philomina Kuzoe in an interview with Citi Business News said the process was largely successful. “I think the process has been good, sales have also been successful even though on the first day we were overwhelmed by the number of people that trooped in, but it was managed well. If there are any mistakes that we have realized, we will go back and correct them,” she said. Commenting on the next line of action for all unsold vehicles, Madam Kuzoe hinted at a possible revaluation of such vehicles. “For the vehicles that were not sold, we are going to get the valuers to revalue them and then we will add them to the next batch that we will be selling and auction as well,” she remarked. On the last day of the auction however, three of the fourteen vehicles were not bought. These included two Mitsubishi Pajeros which are 2016 registered, and a Toyota Land Cruiser which is 2017 registered. Some prospective buyers attributed this to the relatively high reserved prices quoted by the auctioneers which were 170,000 and 270,000 cedis respectively. Meanwhile, the Receiver is expected to announce another round of auctioning when adequate assets have been realized in the receivership process.

READ MORE

Customers of collapsed microfinance firms will be paid in full this year – Ofori Atta

BOG‚ General Public‚ Micro- Finance‚ Saving and Loans | Matilda Akakpo | February 10, 2020 | Comment off

Dr Kwabena Duffour, a former Minister of Finance and owner of defunct Unibank and his son, Kwabena Duffour II, the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and six others have been charged with various charges including conspiracy to commit crime, fraud, money laundering which led to the collapse of the bank in 2017.

READ MORE

KOFI AMOABENG, 5 OTHERS SLAPPED WITH 42 NEW CHARGES

BOG‚ General Public‚ Micro- Finance‚ Saving and Loans | Matilda Akakpo | February 6, 2020 | Comment off

Dr Kwabena Duffour, a former Minister of Finance and owner of defunct Unibank and his son, Kwabena Duffour II, the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and six others have been charged with various charges including conspiracy to commit crime, fraud, money laundering which led to the collapse of the bank in 2017.

READ MORE

Duffuor, Asiama, Amoabeng, others hauled before court

BOG‚ General Public‚ Micro- Finance‚ Saving and Loans | Matilda Akakpo | February 6, 2020 | Comment off

Dr Kwabena Duffour, a former Minister of Finance and owner of defunct Unibank and his son, Kwabena Duffour II, the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and six others have been charged with various charges including conspiracy to commit crime, fraud, money laundering which led to the collapse of the bank in 2017.

READ MORE