Prince Kofi Amoabeng
An Accra High Court has ordered the Attorney General’s (AG’s) Department to file all the prosecution documents it intends to rely on for the trial of the former Chief Executive Officer of insolvent UT Bank, Prince Kofi Amoabeng, and five others who have been charged with their alleged conducts leading to depositors of the bank losing money.
The court, presided over by Justice Bright Mensah, a Court of Appeal judge sitting with additional responsibility as a High Court judge, said the AG has up to June 22 to furnish all the accused persons with the prosecution documents.
Subsequently, the case was adjourned to June 25, 2020.
The businessman, together with Dr. Johnson Pandit Asiama, a former 2nd Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, and four of his former employees are before the court facing some 42 charges, including causing financial loss to the state.
Mr. Amoabeng is alleged to have transferred the investment of some 15 companies totalling GH¢51,334,387.08 and $8,799,917 from UT Bank to UT Holdings, a company he owns without the knowledge and consent of the investors.
Mr. Amoabeng is also facing charges of fabrication of evidence with intent to pervert the course of justice in a document containing a false statement that an amount of $7,000,000 had been deposited into an escrow account in the name of the Registrar of the High Court with intent to mislead a Justice of the High Court in a judicial proceeding.
Dr. Asiama, on the other hand, is accused of allegedly causing financial loss to the state by approving GH¢460 million liquidity support for UT Bank without following laid-down procedures.
Apart from Mr. Amoabeng and Dr. Asiama, other persons charged are Raymond Amanfu, former Head of Banking Supervision Department (BSD) at the Bank of Ghana from 2014 to October 2017; UT Holdings Limited (UT Holdings); Catherine Johnson, former Head of Treasury who had also acted as the Head of Corporate Banking of UT, and Robert Kwesi Armah, a former General Manager of Corporate Banking of UT.
The accused persons pleaded not guilty to all the charges, and the court presided over by Justice Mensah granted Dr. Asiama a self-recognizance bail of GH¢60 million, while the other accused persons, with the exception of Mrs. Johnson, were granted a bail of GH¢60 million each with three sureties, two of whom must be justified.
The sureties were also to deposit their title deeds with the Registrar of the court, while the accused persons were also ordered to deposit their passports with the court Registrar.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak