Banking crisis: EOCO uncovers GHS 1bn related party transactions; GHS 116m untraceable investments
The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has uncovered payments totaling GHS 1.09bn made by some microfinance institutions and savings and loans to related parties.
This is contained in a report detailing its investigations into the collapse of 347 microfinance institutions and 23 savings and loans companies.
In the said report, related parties transactions by savings and loans institutions and microfinance companies amounted to GHS 1.05bn and GHS 33.8m respectively.
The related parties transactions made in the form of loans, accounted for 25% and 18% of the total loan portfolio of savings and loans institutions and microfinance companies respectively.
Savings and Loans identified to have engaged in related party transactions including GN Savings and Loans, IFS, Accent, First Allied, CDH, First Trust, Alpha Capital and Midland Savings and Loans.
For the microfinance companies, they include Cypress microfinance company, Nationwide microfinance company, Goldman Capital and Dwadifo Adamfo microfinance company.
For the GHS 116.7m untraceable investments, EOCO asserts these monies were placed with investment companies.
Adding that all attempts to trace the whereabouts of the investment companies have been unsuccessful.
The EOCO therefore called on the Central Bank to trace the non-operational investment companies to assist with the recovery of the funds.
EOCO in the report forwarded to the Central Bank, further noted that its investigations revealed a mismatch in the assets and liabilities of the collapsed savings and loans companies and microfinance companies.
It added that, dockets have been prepared for 13 SDIs and forwarded to the Office of the Attorney General for prosecution.
The 13 SDIs include; CDH S&L, GN S&L, IFS FS, FTS Capital MFC, Legacy Capital S&L, Cypress MFC, Midland S&L, Express S&L, DPF MFC, Goldman Capital MFC, UniCredit S&L, Adom Sika MFC, and Dream Finance Limited.
Read details of report:
Update BoG EOCO Collaboration 17 August 2022 by Fuaad Dodoo on Scribd
