Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, a Court of Appeal judge sitting with an additional responsibility of the High Court, has signalled that the court will no longer entertain repetitive evidence by Michael Nyinaku, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Beige Group Limited.
According to the judge, the 15 of 61 witnesses called by Mr. Nyinaku to defend his case have adduced collaborative evidences, which clearly explained the issues about funds transfer, transition of Beige from savings and loans to a universal bank to the court.
At yesterday sitting, Her ladyship Afia Serwah urged Kwame Yaw Appiah Kubi, holding brief for Thaddeus Sory to rationalise the number of witnesses they intend to call in defence of the accused, and if their testimonies are collaborative, they should bar them from coming.
However, if they fail, the judge said: “If anybody comes in here to repeat what had already been said, I will strike out the evidence and discharge the witness.”
The accused, during Case Management Conference (CMC), indicated that he will be calling as many as 61 witnesses in defence of the 43 charges including stealing, fraudulent breach of trust and money laundering, and has been admitted to bail.
Her Ladyship Afia Serwah had always raised concerns over the number of witnesses the defence is calling.
She had stated that throughout her years of practice, this the highest number of witnesses on record intended to be called by an accused.
Background
The accused person was the Chief Executive Officer of The Beige Bank Limited (Beige Bank). On 1st August, 2018 the Bank of Ghana (BoG) revoked the banking licence of Beige Bank and placed it in Receivership.
A review of the financial and other records of the Bank conducted by the Receiver and his team identified a number of suspicious and unusual transactions which were subsequently reported to the law enforcement agencies for investigations.
Investigations revealed that between 2015 and 2018, the accused person, as CEO of the bank, used various means to transfer huge sums of money to companies related to him for his personal benefit. The funds transferred were depositors’ funds lodged with Beige Bank.
Between 2017 and 2018, the accused person caused the transfer of 10,071 fixed deposit accounts held with Beige Bank, in which various customers placed a total of GH¢448,636,210.21 to Beige Capital Asset Management Limited (BCAM), without the knowledge and consent of these customers.
BCAM is a limited liability company wholly owned by The Beige Group Limited (Beige Group), an entity which in turn is wholly owned by the accused person. Investigations also revealed that the accused person, between the years 2017 and 2018, caused the transfer of 35 fixed deposit investments of 23 customers of Beige Bank, totaling GH¢141,042,348.92, to the Beige Group, a company wholly owned by the accused, who is the majority shareholder of Beige Bank.
Investigations further revealed that sometime in March 2018, the accused person caused a fictitious second account to be opened in the name of First Africa Savings and Loans (FASL), an existing account holder with Beige Bank, without the knowledge of the Board and management of FASL.
The accused person then caused the transfer of the sum of GH¢320 million from the accounts of various Beige Bank customers into the bank account of BCAM held with Beige Bank.
The GH¢320 million was, subsequently, transferred from the BCAM account held with Beige Bank into the fictitious FASL account that had been opened in Beige Bank’s books on the instructions of the accused.
Between March 2018 and August 2018, GH¢21,123,270.96 out of the GH¢320 million was transferred from the fictitious FASL bank account to some two individuals and 10 companies, nine of which are related to the accused person, on the instructions of the accused person.
Again, between 2015 and 2017, the accused person, through the use of payment vouchers, caused the sum of GH¢1,465,000.00 of depositors’ funds lodged with Beige Bank to be paid to himself and other persons.
These transactions were recorded in a general ledger account of the bank, described as Directors Account. Investigations also revealed that the accused person, through the use of payment vouchers, emails and memos, caused a total amount of GH¢20,599,052.58 of depositors’ funds lodged with Beige Bank to be transferred to a number of companies and individuals for his benefit.
These transactions were recorded in a general ledger account of the bank described as Shareholders Account. Additionally, between 2016 and 2017, the accused person, through the use of payment vouchers, caused a total amount of GH¢141,742,087.70 of depositors’ funds lodged with Beige Bank to be transferred to a number of companies and individuals for his benefit.
These transactions were recorded in a general ledger account of the bank described as Prepayment: Project Works Account.
Between 2017 and 2018 the accused person, through the use of payment vouchers, emails and memos, further caused the sum of GH¢118,076,813.09 of depositors’ funds lodged with Beige Bank to be transferred to a number of companies and individuals for his benefit. These transactions were also recorded in a general ledger account of the bank described as the Beige Group Account.
Investigations have established that the money dishonestly appropriated by the accused from Beige Bank remained unpaid as at 1st August 2018 when the Bank’s licence was revoked by Bank of Ghana (BoG)
