Twelve persons accused of stealing over GH¢1.2 million granted bail

An Accra Circuit Court has granted a GHC200,000.00 bail with four sureties, each to twelve persons who allegedly stole over GHC1,209,304.69 belonging to some ABSA Bank customers.

The customers included the late Justice Anthony Kofi Abada, a high court judge, former IGP late Mr Ernest Ako, and Reverend Theodora Baaba Hackman.

The Court ordered that two of the sureties each should earn income not less than GHC2,000.00 for six of them and GHC2,500.00 for the rest.

They are to deposit certified copies of their Ghana Cards at the Court’s Registry.

It was the second time Emmanuel Sakyi Afriyie, 25, Cecil Nyamesem Agyarkwa, 26, Richard Aikins, 31, Michael Tweneboah Oppong, 25 and Fouad Mohammed,32, and Caleb Bandoh appeared before the Court.

Nicholas Nii Sai, Nana Kwesi Gyimah, Benjamin Adoari, Joseph D. Anim, Isaac De-Heer and Othniel Amankwah Darkwa were at large until the news broke in the media.

They have all denied their varied charges against them.

Meanwhile, Clinton Asamoah, Kwame Owusu Buadu, Daniel Osei, Boadu Nana Yaw Adjei and Ernest Aryee are at large.

The accused persons are to return on July 7, 2023.

Detective Chief Inspector Isaac Anquandah, giving the facts, said Nana Addo Ampem-Darko, the complainant was the Head of Fraud Detection and Operations at Absa Bank Ghana Limited.

He said Afriyie, a former banker at Absa bank, was a resident of Labone, Agyarkwa, 26, a student at the University of Ghana, Aikins, 31, was a trader, Oppong, trader, Mohammed,32 a System Administrator and Bandoh,25 was an entrepreneur.

Afriyie was employed by Absa Bank Ghana Limited as a contract staff in February 2022 and was posted to the Osu branch as a Processing officer whose job description was to assist customers in loan processing, T-bill processing, debit card processing, dormant account activation, customer account maintenance and others, the Court heard.

Detective Chief Inspector Anquandah said Afriyie had worked at the said branch for more than a year and had worked on several accounts, including victim Ekua Ewuduwa Dadzie’s bonus and savings accounts, a loyal customer of the bank, since 2009/2010.

He said in February 2023, Afriyie registered for an online coding course called “Code with Mosh” for a renewable annual subscription of USD 174.30 which was equivalent to GHC2,287.69.

On February 6, 2023, he paid for the annual subscription, using Reverend Cynthia Patricia Asamoah’s Visa card number 453109xxxxxx2285, a prestige customer of the bank.

Whilst the complainant and the Fraud team of the bank were preparing and gathering evidence to engage Afriyie, they were informed by the Osu Branch manageress, Mrs Felicia Mackenzie, that the accused person, Afriyie, had tendered in his resignation letter with an effective date of May 31, 2023.

This transaction by him on the said customer’s visa card and his resignation raised suspicion for the complainant and his team to deep dive into the issue, the Court heard.

The complainant and the fraud team, including the bank’s IT experts detected that on April 20, 2023, Afriyie, who by his own means. had access to his colleague Rogers Selassie Adams’ User ID and password, and changed the contact number on victim Ekua Ewuduwa Dadzie’s accounts without the customer’s request.

The prosecution said on April 21, 2023, he personally set up internet and mobile banking access on Ekua Ewuduwa Dadzie’s accounts using his own User ID and password after which he had access and started operating on the accounts without the victim customer receiving an SMS alert.

He said from April 21, 2023, to May 12, 2023, Afriyie having access to Ekua Ewuduwa’s account, fraudulently transferred GHS 945,133.00, including charges from the accounts to the following accused persons; GHS90,000.00 to Agyarkwa’s girlfriend, Rhoda Abena Gransimaa Panyin Quansah’s Cal bank and Fidelity bank accounts, GHS 180,000.00 to Aikins’s Cal bank account with account name AE iShop.

He also sent GHS30,000.00 to Oppong’s Cal Bank account, GHS30,000.00 to Mohammed’s GT bank account, GHS30,000.00 Bandoh’s Cal bank account, GHS30,000.00 to Buadu’s Access bank account, GHS 60,000.00 to Sai’s Fidelity bank account.

An amount of GHS90,000.00 was again transferred to Gyimah’s Cal Bank account, GHS60,000.00 to Adoari’s Ecobank account, GHS 30,000.00 to Osei’s Fidelity account, GHS 30,000.00 to Adjei’s GT bank account and GHS60,000.00 to Anim’s FNB account.

All these transfers, Prosecution said, were done in GHS30,000.00 tranches on different days within the said period.

On May 9, 2023, from 0721 hours to 0732 hours, he used another colleague called Isaac Wiafe and the branch manageress Felicia Mackenzie’s Users ID to change and authorize the contact numbers of eleven customers’ accounts, including the account of late Justice Anthony Kofi Abada, former IGP late Mr Ernest Ako, Williams Joe Frimpong, Rev Theodora Baaba Hackman, Esther Marian Hackman and replaced them with only one contact number 0531668674.

Afriyie used eleven minutes to complete both the changes and authorization after which he used his own User ID to set up online and mobile banking for these eleven accounts on May 10, 2023.

On May 10, 2023, Afriyie transferred GHS50,000.00 from Esther Marian Hackman’s account to Absa’s account of Aryee and on May 16, 2023, he transferred GHS 50,000.00 each from Ernest Ako, Williams Joe Frimpong and Rev Theodora Baaba Hackman’s accounts to the following Absa account holders respectively; Aryee, Darkwa and De-Heer.

He said Agyarkwa, Aikins, Oppong, Mohammed and Bandoh stated in their respective investigation cautioned statements that Asamoah came to their shops to purchase iPhone 14 Pro Max and requested their bank accounts details and forwarded the same to Afriyie to effect those fraudulent transfers into their various accounts.

On May 12, 2023, he said Afriyie was arrested by the Police in respect of the Visa card theft and was granted Police enquiry bail.

Three days later, the complainant on behalf of the Bank petitioned the Director General, CID in respect of the GHS1,207,017.00 theft detected in furtherance to the Visa Card theft.

The Police contacted Sakyi Afriyie to report himself to the Police but he refused to show up.

His surety was informed to produce him to the Police yet to no avail, thus, on June 14, 2023, he attempted to escape from the jurisdiction and fly to Dubai together with his girlfriend Ivy, who stood as surety for him, nevertheless, Afriyie was arrested at the Kotoka International Airport by the Ghana Immigration Service and handed over to the Police, he said.

Prosecutors said Sakyi Afriyie together with his accomplices had stolen GHS1,209,304.69 from the accounts of their victims between the month of April 2023 and May 2023.

The investigation is continuing to trace and arrest all the remaining accused persons and trace the proceeds of crime resulting from this case, according to prosecutors.