The Office of the Attorney-General (A-G) has closed its case in the trial of the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the defunct Beige Group, Michael Nyinaku.
The A-G’s prosecution team, led by Chief State Attorney (CSA) Evelyn Keelson, closed the case last week Friday, after the defence counsel had concluded the cross-examination of the investigator, Detective Abednego Archer.
The prosecution, since February this year, presented four witnesses – Julius Ayivor, the Receiver, George Akrofi Addo, an Assistant Director at the Banking Supervision Department of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Stephen Duah Agyemang, Financial Manager of the collapsed Beige Bank, and Detective Abednego Archer.
Her Ladyship Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, Presiding Judge, gave the prosecution and defendant three weeks (November 10) to file their written submissions on whether Mr. Nyinaku had a case to answer or not. The court is expected to deliver a ruling on the submissions on November 30.
Justice Mrs. Asare-Botwe, a Justice of the Court of Appeal, before adjourning the trial, commended the lawyers for speeding up the case. She further encouraged the working relationship between the prosecution team and defence lawyers, led by Thaddeus Sory.
For the next one month, Mr. Nyinaku’s fate hangs in balance, as to whether the court will acquit and discharge him or he would be ordered to open his defence after establishing that he had a case to answer. He is facing 43 counts of stealing, fraudulent breach of trust, and money laundering.
He pleaded not guilty to all the counts and the court maintained his bail conditions of GH¢200 million with three sureties, two to be justified by landed property worth the bail sum after his charges were reduced.
Despite the amendment of the charge sheet, Mr. Sory pointed out to the court that some of the counts were repetitive.
For instance, he said, counts 37, 39 and 41 were referring to the same figure, and the same repetition could be in counts 11 to 29, as well as counts 31, 32 and 34.
He also said the monies deemed laundered by the accused were invested into physical transforming of the bank.
The facts
The accused person was the Chief Executive Officer of 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 investigation.
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.
