Ivorian caged over GHC110.6m CAL Bank scam

An Ivorian, who managed to bypass the security systems of CAL Bank Ghana Limited and allegedly stole GH¢110,160,000 from the bank, has been remanded into custody by an Accra Circuit Court.

William Djedehard Anselme Boscaud Dieou is said to have remotely logged onto one of the computers of CAL Bank and used the credentials of two staff of the bank to debit the internal account of the bank with the said amount.

The suspect, according to police, committed the crime on July 3, 2017 but went into hiding after the bank detected the anomaly and reported it to the police.

The suspect, who according to the police used dubious means to secure a National Health Insurance Health Scheme (NHIS) card to transfer the stolen money in his account with the bank under the fraudulent name of William Kurt Mensah.

He managed to withdraw GH¢84,991.06 of the total amount using the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) and transferred another GH¢170,000.00 into six other accounts using the bank’s online services.

Some of the recipients were able to withdraw the monies while others were arrested in the process.

His activities were detected by the bank on July 5, 2017 and an official complaint was lodged with the police leading to the arrest of 12 suspects.

His accomplice Wonder Kofi Klutse Fianu, who identified the accounts that the monies were lodged in, is still on the run.

William Djedehard Anselme Boscaud Dieou, aka William Kurt Mensah, is before the court on two counts of conspiracy to steal and stealing. He pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution, led by DSP George Amega, prayed the court to remand the accused person into custody since the police were still investigating the matter.

The court, presided over by Her Honour Harriet Akweley Quaye, remanded him to reappear on August 30, 2018.

DSP George Amega told the court that the management of CAL Bank Ghana Limited on July 5, 2017 detected that its internal account had been debited with various sums of money totaling GH¢110,160,000.00 and that the first three transactions were deleted from their system.

He said forensic investigations on the network of the bank revealed that the suspects remotely logged onto one of the bank’s computers using the credentials of two staff of the bank.

DSP Amega told the court that some of the six recipients were able to withdraw the money while others were arrested.

He told the court that efforts were being made by the police to arrest another suspect, Wonder Kofi Klutse Fianu.