Beige-Bank Trial: Court adjourns to March 18

The Accra High Court trying Michael Nyinaku, former Chief Executive Officer of the defunct Beige Bank, Wednesday adjourned the trial to Monday, March 18, 2024.

This followed the absence of both Nyinaku and Thaddeus Sory, his counsel, when trial was supposed to have continued after the Court ordered that the defense counsel filed all witness statements at the last sitting.

Sory presented to the Court presided over by Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe, an Appeal Court Judge with additional responsibility at the High Court, an excuse duty from the Military Hospital.

The content said he was seen on March 7, 2024, and was given 15 days excuse duty.

However, Justice Asare-Botwe said the excuse duty did not qualify as a medical report that required him to excuse himself to be absent from the Court.

The Court then ordered the accused person to be present on March 18, 2024.

The Court was earlier informed by the prosecution that when Beige Bank’s license was revoked in August 2018, a review of the financial and other records of the Bank revealed some suspicious and unusual transactions, which were subsequently reported.

Investigations revealed that from 2015 to 2018, Nyinaku, the accused person, had allegedly transfer huge sums of money to companies related to him and for his personal benefit.

The funds transferred were depositors’ funds lodged with Beige Bank from 2017 to 2018 and Nyinaku caused the transfer of 10,071 fixed deposit accounts 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.

The prosecution detected that Nyinaku, between 2017 and 2018, transferred 35 fixed deposit investments of 23 customers of Beige Bank totalling GH¢141,042,348.92 to the Beige Group.

The Court heard that in March 2018, Nyinaku allegedly caused a fictitious second account to be opened in the name of First Africa Savings and Loans (FASL), an existing account holder with Beige Bank, without the knowledge of the Board and management of FASL.

Nyinaku, the prosecution said, also transferred GH¢320 million from the accounts of various Beige Bank customers into the bank account of BCAM held with Beige Bank.

The prosecution continued that between 2015 and 2017, Nyinaku, through payment vouchers, caused the sum of GH¢1,465,000.00 of depositors’ funds lodged with Beige Bank to be paid to himself and other persons.

Those transactions were recorded in a general ledger account of the Bank, described as Directors Account, the prosecution told the Court.

The Court heard that investigations revealed that the accused person, through payment vouchers, e-mails and memos, had transferred GH¢20,599,052.58 of depositors’ funds lodged with Beige Bank to several companies and individuals for his benefit.

Nyinaku has denied all the charges and been granted GHC200 million bail with three sureties.