A 34-year-old Michael Sumnaya Adedina, an Accountant with Medeena Consult Limited, is said to have acquired mining concession, Toyota Hilux Pick Up, Lexus SUB vehicle and a 4-bedroomroom house within a space of two years through ill-gotten wealth.
Micheal allegedly managed to acquire these properties by forging 39 Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) official payment receipts of BMG Infrastructure Limited.
This act is said to have caused the Republic of Ghana to lose revenue to the tune of GH¢2,495,778.00.
Michael was, therefore, charged with forgery of official document, stealing, fraudulent breach of trust, making of False or misleading statements and unauthorized attempt to collect tax.
The accountant pleaded not guilty to the charges, although his lawyer told the Accra Circuit Court that the accused has handed over the vehicles to the complainant, Deniz Cetir, the Country Manager for BMG Infrastructure Company.
He was also slapped with two other counts, unauthorised collection of tax and impeding tax administration, but the presiding judge, Mrs. Afia Owusua Appiah, struck them out on the basis that they are not supported by the facts of the case.
Michael has been remanded into police custody to reappear before the court on February 17, 2024.
On Thursday December 4, 2024, the prosecuting officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Evans Kesse read the facts of the case to court.
He said the complainant’s firm is foreign company registered with the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) in 2021 and it is located at Tarkwa in the Western Region.
DSP Kesse added that it is into mining waste processing, and after setting up the company, the accused approached the complainant and introduced himself as a professional accountant who could prepare all their accounting bookings and represent their interest professionally.
According to him, the company outsourced the services of the accused in all matters relating to accounting including statutory payments and the preparation of various tax types with the Ghana Revenue Authority and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust for its employees.
Since his appointment in the year 2021, the accused prepared and collected monies from the complainant at the end of every month ostensibly to pay for the various tax handles.
After each payment, the accused furnished the complainant official receipts purportedly from the Ghana Revenue Authority as prove of payment.
On May 31, 2023, the Ghana Revenue Authority conducted tax audit into the activities of BMG Infrastructure Limited and detected a tax liability of GH¢2,495,778.00 parade against the company, which raised suspicion.
Consequently, the company launched investigation into the cause of the huge liability.
It was gathered that the accused failed to pay all the tax revenue he collected over the period to GRA.
A report was made to the GRA, through GIPC with the corresponding receipts for verification and it was realized that the accused has been forging the Authority’s official receipts.
Following this worrying development, an official complaint was made on December 29, 2023, to the investigation wing of GRA and the person was arrested for investigation.
During interrogation, the accused admitted the offence in his cautioned statement to the Police, stating that he downloaded the GRA payment receipts, edited them and insert the tax figures and presented the forged receipts to the complainant.
He disclosed that he used part of the money to buy concession for mining purposes, but the deal went bad .
Additionally, the accused also bought Toyota Hilux pick up at the cost of GH¢650, 000.00, a Lexus SUB vehicle at the cost of GH¢550, 000.00, and put up a 4-bedroom self-contained house at Tarkwa Aboso.
The prosecutor added that investigation is still ongoing to identify these asserts for further action.
