The Attorney-General’s (A-G) office has given an indication that the number of people charged in the absa Bank theft case would be reduced. However, the A-G, represented by Lawrencia Adika, did not let the cat out of the bag on the number of accused persons who would be standing trial after the final investigation.
She told the court trying the accused persons that not all the names of the 17 would probably be listed on the amended charge sheet.
She also applied for bench warrants for the arrest of four of the accused persons – Clinton Asamoah, Kwame Owusu Boadu, Daniel Osei and Boadu Nana Yaw.
These four have been at large since the case was brought before the Accra Circuit Court, presided over by Mrs. Ellen Ofei-Ayeh, in June, this year.
The court has repeatedly refused bail applications by the first accused (A1) Emmanuel Botwe and adjourned the next hearing to October 3, 2033.
Charges
Emmanuel Sakyi Afriyie, 25 and now a businessman, who was a former contract staff of absa Bank is facing 13 charges of conspiracy to commit a crime, stealing, forgery of other documents, and falsification of accounts.
Others, Cecil Nyamesem Agyarkwa (A2), Richard Aikins (A3), Michael Tweneboah Oppong (A4), Fouad Mohammed (A5) and Caleb Bandoh (A6), Clinton Asamoah (A7), Kwame Owusu Buadu (A8), Nicholas Nii Sai (A9), Nana Kwesi Gyimah (A10), Benjamin Adoari (A11), Daniel Osei (A12), Boadu Nana Yaw Adjei (A13), Joseph D. Anim (A14), Ernest Aryee (A15), and Isaac De-Heer (A16)and Othniel Amankwah Darkwa (A17) were charged with conspiracy to commit a crime and stealing.
All of the accused persons have pleaded not guilty to the charges, and with the exception of A1 and those at large, the rest are on bail.
Brief facts
The prosecuting officer narrated to the court that Nana Addo Ampem-Darko, Head of Fraud Detection and Operations at absa Bank Ghana Limited, is the complainant in the case.
According to him, A1 is a resident of Labone, and until May this year, he was contracted as Processing Officer at the bank.
He added that Cecil is 26 years old and a student at the University of Ghana, Legon; Richard, 31, a trader; Michael, 25, also a trader; Fouad, 32, a System Administrator, and Caleb, 25, an entrepreneur.
He told the court that Al was employed by absa Bank as a contract staff in the month of February 2022 and was posted to the Osu branch as a Processing Officer, whose job description was to assist customers in loan processing, T-bill processing, debit card processing, dormant account activation and customer account maintenance among others.
C/Insp. Anquandah said due to Emmanuel’s job description, he worked on several accounts, including that of Ekua Ewuduwa Dadzie’s bonus and savings accounts.
However, somewhere in February 2023, Al registered for an online coding course, which the renewable annual subscription fee was US$174.30, equivalent to GH¢2,287.69.
Unfortunately, instead of A1 to pay for the course out of his own pocket, he rather made the payment on Rev. Cynthia Patricia Asamoah’s Visa Card on February 6, 2023.
As a result, the complainant and the fraud team of the bank were gathering evidence on the matter to engage Al, but the latter made a swift move to tender in his resignation letter, effective May 31, 2023.
The sudden resignation and the alleged illegal transaction on the customer’s Visa Card by A1 made the bank officials more suspicious to investigate him in other areas.
The complainant, together with the fraud team, made up of the bank’s IT experts, detected that on April 20, 2023, Al usingy his own machination accessed one of his colleague’s User ID and password to change the contact number on another customer, Ekua Ewuduwa Dadzie’s accounts.
So, on April 21, 2023, Al personally set up an internet and mobile banking access on Ekua Ewuduwa Dadzie’s accounts, using his own User ID and password, after which he had access and started operating on the account without the victim customer receiving SMS alerts.
Therefore, from April 21 to May 12, 2023, Al, with full access to Ekua Ewuduwa’s account, fraudulently transferred a total of GH¢945,133.00, including charges, from the accounts to that of a number of people.
First and foremost, he transferred GH¢90,000.00 to Cecil’s girlfriend, Rhoda Abena Gransimaa PanyinQuansah’s Cal Bank and Fidelity Bank accounts; GH¢180,000.00 to Richard’s Cal Bank account; GH¢30,000.00 to Michael’s Cal Bank account, and GH¢30,000.00 to Fouad’s GT Bank account.
Caleb also received GH¢30,000.00 in his Cal Bank account; Kwame and Nicholas received GH¢30,000.00 and GH¢60,000.00 respectively in their Access Bank and Fidelity Bank accounts, and Nana Kwesi got GH¢90,000.00 in his Cal Bank account.
Benjamin had GH¢60,000.00 in his Ecobank account, Daniel received GH¢30,000.00 in his Fidelity account, Boadu, GH¢30,000.00 his GT Bank account, and Joseph, GH¢60,000.00 in his FNB account.
All of the transfers were done in tranches of GH¢30,000.00 on different dates within the said period.
On May 9, 2023, from 7:21am to 7:32am, he used another colleague and that of the branch Manageress, Felicia Mackenzie’s Users IDs to change and authorise the contact numbers of eleven customers’ accounts, including the account of the late Justice Anthony Kofi Abada, a former IGP, late Mr. Ernest Ako, Williams Joe Frimpong, Rev Theodora Baaba Hackman, Esther Marian Hackman and replaced them with only one contact number, 0531668674.
On May 11, 2023, Al transferred GH¢50,000.00 from Esther Marian Hackman’s account to the absa account of Ernest Aryee and did the same the next day by transferring GH¢50,000.00 each from the late Ernest Ako, Williams Joe Frimpong and Rev Theodora Baaba Hackman’s accounts to some other absa account holders.
The receivers of the transfers were Ernest, Othniel and Isaac. The court was told that Cecil, Richard, Michael and Fouad stated in their respective investigation cautioned statements that Clinton came to their shops to purchase Iphone 14 Pro Max and requested for their bank accounts details and forwarded the same to Al to effect those fraudulent transfers into their accounts.
On May 12, 2023, Al was arrested by the police in respect of the Visa Card theft and was granted police enquiry bail to be reporting.
On May 15, 2023, the complainant, on behalf of the bank, petitioned the Director General of CID in respect of GH¢1,207,017.00 theft detected in furtherance to the Visa Card case.
Interestingly, when Al was contacted to report himself to the police, he refused to show up, meanwhile, efforts to compel his surety to produce him also failed.
On June 4, 2023, A1, together with his girlfriend, Ivy Okertchiri, who stood surety for him, attempted to escape from the jurisdiction to Dubai, but he was arrested at the Kotoka International Airport by the Ghana Immigration Service and handed over to the police.
C/Insp. Anquandah stated that investigations revealed that Al, together with his accomplices, within the period of April and May 2023, stole a total amount of GH¢1,209,304.69 from the aforementioned customers’ accounts.
