Mr Amoabeng at the Accra Circuit Court IV.
The Chief Executive Officers of two of the banks that collapsed during the banking sector clean up by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) have been arraigned before court.
The two, Prince Kofi Amoabeng and Michael Nyinaku of defunct UT Bank and BEIGE bank respectively, have been charged with stealing and money laundering.
Both have been accused of allegedly stealing more than Ghc390million and $8.6 million belonging to customers of the banks.
Amoabeng Granted Bail
Prince Amoabeng was granted bail in the sum of GhC110million with two sureties by the court presided over by Justice Emmanuel Essandoh, a justice of the High Court with additional responsibility as a circuit court judge.
The sureties, according to the court, must be public servants who must not earn less than Ghc2,000 a month.
Meanwhile, Mr. Amoabeng has also been asked by the court to deposit his passport at the court’s registry and report to the police every Monday and Friday.
He is being accused of stealing more than Ghc51.3 million and $8.6million belonging to the depositors of the bank.
Nyinaku Remanded
Micheal Nyinaku, on the hand, has been remanded in police custody for one week.
The remand follows the dismissal of a bail application by his lawyers. Though the application was not opposed by the prosecution, the presiding judge indicated that, Nyinaku’s lawyer, Baffour Awuah Gyewu, failed to convince the court to grant his client bail.
The judge held that prosecution had convinced the court that investigations into Nyinaku’s case were ongoing and granting bail at this time would not be prudent.
He, however, said he would listen to another bail application by Nyinaku’s legal team at the next hearing on January 22, 2020.
Nyinaku is being accused of stealing more than Ghc340million belonging to depositors of the bank.
UT Bank’s willful deceit
The BoG on Monday, August 14, 2017, revoked the licenses of UT and Capital banks due to their insolvency, leading to a seamless takeover of the two banks by GCB Bank. UT Bank, which was trading on the Ghana Stock Exchange, had its listing status also suspended.
Provisional figures released by the central bank showed the total liability of UT Bank stood at GH¢850 million while its total asset was pegged at GH¢112 million.
Mr. Amoabeng has, since the revocation of the license of UT Bank, been a subject of investigations for what the BoG has termed as “willful deceit”.
2019 Beige Case
The recent case follows another case brought against Mr. Nyinaku in June 2019. Nyinaku, and 12 subsidiaries of the Beige Group, were dragged to court by the receiver of the bank, Nii Amanor Dodoo for the alleged roles they played leading to the collapse of the bank in June 2019.
Nii Dodoo in the 2019 case is seeking to use the court action to retrieve more than GH¢1 billion from Nyinaku and his companies.
The writ, filed at the Accra High Court, accuses the former CEO of breaching his duties as a director of the bank and engaging in unlawful activities which led to massive losses at the Beige Bank.
According to the writ, Nyinaku allegedly supervised and unlawfully instructed the payment of hundreds of millions of Ghana cedis to his cronies and subsidiary companies without due diligence.
Apart from the recovery of various sums of money, the receiver also wants to use the suit to take custody of over 10 landed properties and about 165 cars and equipment which he averred were acquired with funds from the defunct bank.
The properties include a residential building at Trasacco, East Legon, and other properties scattered across Accra and Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.
The plaintiff is further seeking interests on the various sums of money that Nyinaku is allegedly liable for among others.
The writ was filed by counsel for the receiver, Mr Ace Ankomah, on June 20, 2019.
Revocation of License
The BOG in August 2018 revoked the licences of Beige Bank Limited and four other indigenous banks putting them together as the Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG) Limited.
The BoG explained that the Beige Bank “persistently breached the cash reserve requirement (CRR) of 10 per cent (CRR as of 23 July, 2018 was 1.97%) since the beginning of January 2018”.
It further said the quality of the bank’s loan portfolio had seriously deteriorated, resulting in a non-performing loans (NPL) ratio of 72.80 per cent.
Ato Essien and Capital Bank
The prosecution of Amoabeng and Nyinaku follows the prosecution of former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director of defunct Capital Bank, Ato Essien and Fitzgerald Odonkor who have been sued by the state for their various roles leading to the collapse of the bank.
The two together with Kate Quartey-Papafio and Tetteh Nettey, both shareholders of the bank are facing 26 different counts including Conspiracy to steal contrary to sections 23(1) and 124(1) of the Criminal Offences, Act, 1960 (Act 29), stealing contrary to section 124(1) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) and Money Laundering contrary to section 1(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering Act
2008 (Act 749)..
Government’s Vow
Government has vowed to take action against all managers and other individuals who played various roles in the collapse of nine local banks in the country that has cost the country millions of cedis in protecting the funds of depositors.
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa-Akufo Addo speaking at the results fare yesterday indicated that government has begun bringing those responsible for the banking crisis to justice adding that “… the perpetrators of the crisis, ie both regulators and and individuals, will face justice soon”.
