Beige Bank CEO pleads not guilty to stealing, money laundering charges; granted GHS 200m bail
CEO of defunct Beige Bank, Michael Nyinaku, has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of stealing and money laundering filed against him by the Attorney General.
A total of 44 charges have been filed, with other offences like fraudulent breach of trust attached as well.
Deputy Attorney General, Alfred Tuah Yeboah told an Accra High Court the alleged crimes were discovered following investigations into the bank after its license was revoked and placed under receivership by the Bank of Ghana.
He said that between 2017 and 2018, the accused person caused the transfer of monies held in fixed deposit accounts with Beige Bank to Beige Capital Asset Management Limited (BCAM) without the knowledge and consent of the customers.
“Investigations also revealed that the accused person between the year 2017 and 2018, caused the transfer of 35 fixed investments of 23 customers of Beige Bank totaling ¢141, 042,348.92 to Beige Group, a company wholly owned by the accused and is the majority shareholder of Beige Bank,” Mr. Yeboah stated.
He continued that 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 is alleged to have caused the transfer of the sum of GHS 320 million from the accounts of various Beige Bank customers into the bank account of BCAM held with Beige Bank.
The GHS 320 million the Deputy AG says was subsequently transferred from 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, GHS 21,123,270.96 out of the GHS 320 million is said to have been transferred from the fictitious FASL bank account to some two individual and ten companies, nine of which were related to the accused person on the instructions of the accused person.
But Mr. Nyinaku denied the allegations. His legal team led by Addo Attuah described the allegations as contrary to the actual state of affairs.
He insisted the alleged transactions were simply regular ones which were recorded.
He told the court the accused person has so far been cooperating with investigators for more than two years.
He, therefore, assured the court that Mr. Nyinaku will show up whenever he is needed.
This will mean that two of the three persons who will be signing to assure the court of Mr. Nyinaku’s cooperation would have to show evidence of owning landed properties worth that amount.
Justice Botwe also said the valuation should be conducted by a state agency.
Meanwhile, the case will be reviewed in court on the 22nd of December, 2022.
