Deputy Attorney General, Alfred Tuah Yeboah, has assured Ghanaians that the state will ensure that persons whose action may have led to the collapse of some nine banks in Ghana during the financial sector reforms undertaken by the central bank will be brought before the court.
According to him, the depositors needed to be paid and the government had to pitch in and make payments. Owing to this, he revealed that the state is now in court to prosecute and if possible recover the monies.
“If you paid an amount of 1.2bn from the tax payers money, we need that money back. We can get it back only when you take a legal action like we have done today. I can assure you that there are other cases that will also, very soon, come to court. We have done a lot of investigations to recover those moneys… Let me sound this warning to those who were involved in Savings and Loans, Micro Finance and other banking institutions. If you were involved and the state has to cough money to pay your depositors, you will be called upon to answer certain charges. We are very much ready.”
Alfred Tuah Yeboah
Interacting with the media today, November 8, 2022, following the court granting the Chief Executive officer of the defunct Beige Bank Michael Nyinaku, a bail of GHC200 million, after he pleaded not guilty, Mr Yeboah disclosed that in cases like this it is important to undertake thorough investigations.
“We are talking about figures, it is not something that you can conjure, and you need experts to go through the books. So, we decided to let some space so that at least, we can do everything so that when it comes to court we don’t have problems at how we arrived at figure A or figure B. It is about a thorough investigation.”
Alfred Tuah Yeboah
Beige CEO granted bail
On his part, counsel for the Beige CEO, Lawyer Addo Tuah, told the court that the developments occurred from about 2015 to date and the accused has religiously appeared before various Investigative bodies including Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO).
He explained that they have never defaulted as and when they were needed and hence prayed the court to grant bail.
Presiding Judge, Afia Serwaa Asare Botwe, granted the bail application with three sureties, two to be justified by either a landed property valued by government valuation body or a land valuation division of the lands commission.
The case has been adjourned to December 22, 2022, for case management conference. Mr Nyinaku is to deposit his passport at the court registry and report to the Police every Monday and Friday.
It will be recalled that the Beige CEO was slapped with new charges of theft, money laundering after he was earlier accused of stealing over GHC340 million at a circuit court.
The facts of the new case at the High Court, indicated that when Beige Bank’s license was revoked in August 2018, a review of the financial and other records of the Bank revealed some suspicious and unusual transactions which were subsequently reported.
READ ALSO: GES Director General Is A Victim Of Circumstances- IFEST
