Dr. Kwabena Duffuor
The Attorney General (AG) has amended the charges preferred against former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, founder of the defunct uniBank Ghana Limited, and eight others standing trial for the collapse of the bank.
The nine accused persons were initially facing 68 charges, but the AG in a new charge sheet has preferred a total of 71 charges against them.
This was after the state represented by Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), withdrew the old charge sheet and replaced the amended one yesterday.
The court presided over by Justice Bright Mensah, a Court of Appeal judge sitting as an additional High Court judge, subsequently struck out the old charge sheet as ‘withdrawn’.
The three new additional charges relate to fraudulent acts and a falsification of the accounts of uniBank by the accused persons.
As a result, the court had to retake the pleas of the accused and they all pleaded not guilty to all the new charges.
The presiding judge ordered that they remain on their previous bails and their terms.
In February, the court granted the accused persons a bail of GH¢100 million each with three sureties, two of whom must be justified.
However, their lawyers, right after the decision of the judge, began to beg him to reconsider his decision as none of the accused persons would be able to meet the condition set by the court.
The court then reviewed the bail condition from GH¢100 to GH¢60 million each but maintained the three sureties, two of whom must be justified.
Besides, the sureties were to deposit their title deeds with the registrar of the court, while the accused persons were also ordered to deposit their passports with the registrar.
Meanwhile, the DPP has indicated to the court that they have filed all the documents they intend to rely on for the trial.
The court has set July 16 and 17, 2020 for case management conference to set down the modalities for the trial.
Trial
Dr. Duffuor and eight others are before an Accra High Court for their alleged ‘dishonest’ spending of over GH¢5.7 billion belonging to customers and investors of the insolvent private bank which is now defunct.
Among the accused persons charged is the former 2nd Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Johnson Pandit Asiama, under whose watch over GH¢450 million was allegedly doled out to uniBank without following laid-down procedures, according to the AG’s Department.
Dr. Duffuor, Dr. Asiama, Kwabena Duffuor II, Ekow Nyarko Dadzie-Dennis, Elsie Dansoa Kyereh, Jeffrey Amon, Benjamin Ofori, and Kwadwo Opoku Okoh are now facing a total of 71 charges, including fraudulent transactions and money laundering.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak