Martin Amidu, Special Prosecutor
Special Prosecutor Martin A. B. K. Amidu has reportedly submitted documentary evidence to the Office of the Attorney General (AG) on how to recover the over 47 million Euros fraudulently paid to Waterville Holdings (BVI) Limited, a company belonging to businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome and others.
The document, according to Mr. Amidu, should be sufficient for the AG to locate the brains behind the company and subsequently make them pay the debt back to state coffers.
The Special Prosecutor in his personal capacity sued the AG, Gloria Akuffo, over what he called the failure of her office to retrieve the money as ordered by the Supreme Court.
He filed a suit at the Supreme Court in September praying the court to ‘compel’ the AG to enforce to order and retrieve the money wrongfully paid to the company.
According to the suit, unless the court ‘compels’ the AG to enforce the order and also Woyome’s company is ordered to comply and pay the full amount of debt, the labour and expenses exerted by him as the plaintiff on behalf of Ghanaians would go in vain.
The suit led to what could be described as a clash between him and Deputy AG Godfred Yeboah Dame over efforts to retrieve the cash.
While Mr. Amidu blamed the AG’s Department for dragging its feet in retrieving the money, the deputy AG in turn accused the Special Prosecutor of refusing to supply the AG with vital documents that could help them trace the company to retrieve the judgment debt.
Mr. Amidu has consistently stated that he has information that can help the AG trace the company to retrieve the money but said it would be suicidal to hand over the information to the AG.
The Supreme Court panel of judges raised concerns about the nature of applications filed by Mr. Amidu, and were not clear as to what he was seeking and told Mr. Amidu that it would be better if he collaborated with the AG with the evidence that he has so the money could be retrieved.
Mr. Amidu initially said it would be “suicidal to do so” but later prayed for some time to consult the AG so they could see how they would use the information he had to trace the company.
Evidence
The Special Prosecutor has now filed the “available evidence enabling the enforcement of the judgement debt against Waterville Holdings (BVI) Limited at the Supreme Court.”
According to the evidence, the AG can retrieve the money by chasing Ernesto Taricone, whom he says was at all material times the “alta ego of Waterville Holdings (BVI) Limited and has always been a Ghanaian citizen who is resident in Ghana and is also the Chairman of Trassaco Group of Companies registered in Ghana with more than sufficient assets to refund the total judgment debt of €47,365,624.40 or whichever sum the Attorney General seeks to enforce as the judgment debt.”
This Mr. Amidu says can be done without the assistance of any foreign lawyers to locate the foreign offices of Waterville Holdings (BVI) Limited.
BY Gibril Abdu Razak