Following the arrest of the four (4) persons involved in the SIM swap fraud by the Economic and Organised Crime Office, the four (4) were arraigned before an Accra Circuit Court, presided over by her Honour Judge Ellen Ofei-Ayeh on Wednesday, 13th April, 2022.
Two (2) of the accused persons, Stephen Arthur and Nicholas Gyekye were each granted bail in the sum of GHC6 million with three sureties who should be gainfully employed while the remaining two (2) Ahmed Ansah and Daniel Kodzi were each granted bail in the sum of GHC5 million with three sureties who should be gainfully employed.
The accused persons pleaded not guilty to nine (9) counts of conspiracy to steal, attempt to steal and participating in an organised criminal group.
The four (4) were arrested by officers of EOCO for attempting to illegally withdraw an amount of GHC2,100,000 from the accounts of some customers of one of the indigenous banks.
Investigations revealed that, the accused persons sought the assistance of an official of the Bank to provide them with bank account details to assist them withdraw funds from customers’ accounts. Additionally, they requested for phone numbers and bank account details of customers with huge balances.
The accused persons then allegedly connived with an MTN staff who managed to clone three phone numbers with the intention of stealing from the bank’s customers. The sums of GHC850,000, GHC680,000 and GHc50,000 belonging to 3 customers were targeted. The accused persons setup a mobile application with the cloned sims to withdraw the funds from the customers’ bank accounts. It was in their attempt that the accused persons were arrested.
The case has been adjourned to 17th May, 2022.