Anderson Ofosuhene Ennin
The administrator of Empressleak Ghana, a pornographic website, has been discharged by an Accra Circuit Court.
This was after the prosecution was unable to file its disclosures more than a year after the court had ordered it to do so.
Anderson Ofosuhene Anim, aka Mario G, was arrested for leaking the sex tapes of many victims and demanding huge sums of monies from them in order to delete the videos from the website.
He was facing four charges of publication of obscene material contrary to  Section 280 of the Criminal and Other Offences Act (1960); child pornography; extortion contrary to Section 151 of Act 29 (1960) and money laundering contrary to Section 1(a) of the anti-money laundering, Act, (Act 749).
Appearing before the court, the prosecutor, Inspector Princess Tetteh Boafo, said the ‘mother’ docket was still with the Attorney General’s Office awaiting advice.
However, Yaw Danquah, counsel for Mario G, told the court that the prosecution has for the past year failed to comply with orders of the court to file its disclosures.
He said nothing has happened and prayed the court to strike the case out, adding that the police know where to find the accused person when they are ready to prosecute him.
The court, presided over by Her Honour Mrs. Sussana Eduful, said it had given the prosecution enough time and opportunity to file its disclosures but after a year, nothing had happened.
The court therefore, struck out the case for want of prosecution, adding that when the prosecution is ready they can go for the accused person.
Trial
Mario G was accused of using the porn website to publish nude pictures and videos of people, including minors, and extorting money from them.
He was arrested on July 30, 2020 in a joint operation by the Cyber Crime Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department and the Ministry of Communications.
He is said to have operated the website for the past six years from his home in Osino in the Eastern Region.
The suspect was arrested whilst he was in the act of uploading nude pictures and videos of some victims onto the website.
His arrest followed six months surveillance by the security agencies.
Modus Operandi
Victims are made to pay between GH¢500 and GH¢2,000 through a mobile money account before their pictures are taken down from the website by Mario G.
Despite the huge sums of money the victims are made to pay, the victims continued to receive threatening calls from others believed to be accomplices of Mario G, who have downloaded the videos and in turn make demands for monies in order to get rid of the videos.
The accomplices allegedly build acquaintances with the victims through social media platforms, including dating sites using fake identities.
They then coerce the victims to share nude pictures or videos of their sexual acts which are secretly copied.
The police are making efforts to arrest the accomplices of Mario G.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak