Beige Bank saga: Court of Appeal varies bail from GH¢200 million to GH¢20 million

The founder and Chief Executive Officer of the defunct Beige Bank, Michael Nyinaku’s bail has been varied by the Court of Appeal from GH¢200 million to GH¢20 million.

This comes after the lawyer for Michael Nyinaku, Baffour Gyawu Bonsu Ashia, on Wednesday, December 14, moved a motion on notice for a variation of the bail sum after the Financial and Economic Court of the Accra High Court granted him bail of GH¢200 million after he pleaded not guilty to charges of theft and money laundering.

The state filed an affidavit in opposition, but the court, after hearing the application from Nyinaku’s lawyer, varied the bail sum from GH¢200 million to GH¢20 million with four sureties to be justified.

The Court of Appeal was chaired by Justice Dzamefe.

Background

Mike Nyinaku has been slapped with charges of theft and money laundering after he was earlier accused of stealing over GH¢340 million at a circuit court.

The facts of the new case at the High Court indicated that when Beige Bank’s license was revoked in August 2018, a review of the financial and other records of the bank revealed some suspicious and unusual transactions, which were subsequently reported.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 between 2015 and 2018, Nyinaku allegedly used various means to transfer huge sums of money to companies related to him and for his benefit.

The funds transferred were depositors’ funds lodged with Beige Bank, the investigators claimed.

Between 2017 and 2018, Nyinaku caused the transfer of 10,071 Beige Bank fixed deposit accounts in which various customers placed a total of GH¢448.636,210.21 to Beige Capital Asset Management Limited (BCAM) without their knowledge or consent.

Investigations also revealed that between 2017 and 2018, Mr. Nyinaku caused the transfer of 35 fixed deposit investments of 23 customers of Beige Bank totaling GH¢141,042,348.92 to the Beige Group.

Investigations further revealed that, sometime in March 2018, Mr. Nyinaku 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.

NYA/BOG