Former Beige Bank CEO's trial adjourned again

Continuation of the case in which founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the defunct Beige Bank Limited, Michael Nyinaku is standing trial for allegedly siphoning customers' funds leading to the collapse of the bank has been adjourned again for the second time in a row.

On Monday, January 20, 2025, when the 29th Defense Witness of the accused was expected to testify, the Prosecution asked the Court for an adjournment when the 29th Defense Witness of the accused was expected to testify.

The Court presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare Botwe, a Justice of the Court of Appeal who is presiding over the case as a High Court judge prior to adjourning the case, directed that the proceedings covering the entire case be released to the parties and adjourned the case to February 3.

In Court on Monday, February 3, 2025, when the case was to be recalled, there was no sitting as the case was adjourned to February 24, 2025.

EIB Network’s Legal Affairs Correspondent, Murtala Inusah, gathered that the new Attorney General, Dr. Dominic Ayine, is studying the docket to familiarize himself with the case, which originated from the banking sector cleanup initiated by the previous Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame.

The founder of the defunct bank has been charged with some 43 counts including stealing, fraudulent breach of trust and money laundering and pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution had closed its case after calling five witnesses while Nyinaku was calling his witnesses.

Though he told the High Court in Accra that he would be calling 61 witnesses to mount his defence, the number has been reduced to 41 with Witness number 29 expected to testify before the case was adjourned.

Per the brief facts of the case narrated by Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, Deputy Attorney General, Nyinaku was the former Chief Executive Officer of the Beige Bank and on August 1, 2018, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) revoked the banking license of Beige Bank and placed it in receivership.

He said a review of the financial and other records of the Bank conducted by the receiver and his team showed several suspicious and unusual transactions, which were subsequently reported to law enforcement agencies for investigation.

The AG said investigations conducted revealed that between 2015 and 2018, the accused person as CEO of the Bank had allegedly used various means to transfer huge sums of money to companies related to him and for his personal benefits.

He alleged that the funds transferred were depositors’ funds lodged with the Beige Bank and that between 2017 and 2018, Nyinaku had caused the transfer of GH¢10,071.00 fixed deposit account held with Beige Bank in which various customers placed a total of GH¢448,636,210.21 to Beige Capital Asset Management Limited, (BCAM), without the knowledge and consent of the customers.

Plot

The AG said BCAM was a limited liability company wholly owned by the Beige Group Limited (Beige Group), an entity which in turn was wholly owned by the accused person, adding that the accused person between 2017 and 2018 caused the transfer GH¢141,042,348.92 to the Beige Group, a Company wholly owned by the accused person and its majority shareholders of Beige Bank.

The prosecution said further investigations revealed that in March 2018, the accused person had caused a “fictitious” second account to be opened in the name of First African Savings and Loans (FASL), an existing account holder with Beige Bank, without the knowledge of the board and management of FASL.

The AG said the accused person then caused the transfer of the sum of GH¢320 million from the accounts of various Beige Bank customers into the bank accounts of BCAM held with Beige Bank.

The GH¢320 million was subsequently transferred from the BCAM account held with the Beige Bank into the “fictitious” FASL account that had been opened in Beige Bank’s books on the instructions of the accused person allegedly, said the prosecution.

It said between March 2018 and August 2018, GH¢21,123,270.96 out of the GH¢320 million was transferred from the “fictitious” FASL bank account to some two individuals and ten companies, nine of which were related to Nyinaku, on his instructions.

Email transactions

The AG said again, that between 2015 and 2017, the accused person, through the use of payment vouchers, had caused the sum of GH¢1,465,000.00 of depositors’ funds lodged with Beige Bank to be paid to himself and other persons, the Court heard.

It said the transactions were recorded in a general ledger account of the bank described as a Directors’ account, adding that it came out that the accused person through the use of payment vouchers, emails and memos, had caused a total of GH¢20,599,052.58 of depositors’ funds lodged with Beige Bank to be transferred to a number of a general ledger account of the bank described as shareholders’ account.

The AG also said, that between 2016 and 2017, the accused, through the use of payment vouchers, had caused a total amount of GH¢141,742,087.70 of depositors’ funds lodged with Beige Bank to be transferred to a number of companies and individuals for his benefits allegedly, it said.

It said the transactions were recorded in the general ledger account of the Bank described as Prepayment- a Project Work Account, and that between 2017 and 2018, the accused person using payment vouchers, e-mails, and memos had further caused the sum of GH¢118,076,813.09 of depositors’ funds lodged with Beige Bank to be transferred to several companies and individuals for his benefit allegedly.

It said the transactions were also recorded in a general ledger account of the bank described as the Beige Group Account.

The AG again said investigations had established that the money the accused allegedly dishonestly appropriated from the Beige Bank remained unpaid as of August 1, 2018, when the Bank’s license was revoked by BoG.

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