The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the defunct Beige Bank, Michael Nyinaku, has pleaded not guilty to 44 criminal charges – stealing, defrauding, breach of trust, and money laundering.
The accused pleaded not guilty before the Financial and Economic Division ‘2’ of the Accra High Court, presided over by Justice Afia Serwaa Asare Botwe yesterday.
The court has granted Mr. Nyinaku bail in the sum of GH¢200 million with three sureties, two to be justified by landed property.
The court further ordered that the landed properties are to be valued by the Architectural and Engineering Services Limited or the Land Valuation Division of the Lands Commission of Ghana, or the sureties could deposit their government bonds to the value of the bail sum.
Similarly, Mr. Nyinaku has also been ordered to deposit his passport with the Registrar of the court and report to the police every Monday and Friday.
The court further ordered the Deputy Attorney-General (A-G), Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, to file disclosures latest by December 9, and adjourned the matter to December 22 for the Case Management Conference (CMC).
The facts
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).
Based on these facts, the accused person has been arraigned before this court for trial.
