K.K. Amoah
Former Executive Director of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) K.K. Amoah has parried the contents of a video which presents him in bad light.
He said one Kevin Ekow Taylor, the originator of the video, made wild, baseless and defamatory allegations against him on his ‘With All Due Respect’ platform.
The falsehood, according to the former EOCO boss, started with the allegation that Lawyer Ace Anan Ankomah is his nephew.
“That’s an absolute lie. There is neither family nor blood relations between us, except that we are from the same town. Lawyer Ankomah never referred any case, including that of Horizon, to me or EOCO during my stewardship,” he stated.
Charles Darko
He said on or about 16th February, 2018, one Charles Darko was arrested for money laundering following a report from the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) which, contrary to Kevin Taylor’s falsehoods, is an independent statutory body and not a part of EOCO.
FIC had frozen the account into which certain monies had been received. And Charles Darko claimed the money he had received was from a company called Just Gold, to purchase houses from him, the former EOCO boss explained.
“We were not convinced and, therefore, charged him with money laundering and tax evasion. The High Court convicted him of tax evasion but acquitted him of money laundering because, as the court held, there was no predicate offence,” he said in the statement, adding “upon his acquittal, however, he applied to the court to remove the FIC’s freezing order over his account.”
No Money Paid
K.K.Amoah said “no $600,000 or any part of it was paid to me. I am also not aware that any such payment was made to anyone in EOCO. Also, the allegation that it was EOCO that introduced Charles Darko to lawyer Augustines Obuor is false. It was in the course of investigations that it emerged that lawyer Obuor had been Charles Darko’s lawyer for several years before that arrest.”
“That arrest and prosecution had nothing to do with NAM 1 or Menzgold. There was no connection between them at that time. And the name Horizon did not even come up in the course of that matter,” he stressed.
BoG, EOCO Meeting
After about three meetings held between Bank of Ghana (BoG) and EOCO at EOCO head office during which the BoG complained about the activities of certain companies including Menzgold for taking deposits without licence, he recalled “EOCO commenced investigations into those companies. On or about 10th August 2018, EOCO arrested NAM 1 and about four other people for operating deposit-taking businesses without a licence.”