FULL TEXT: Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom's response to fraud allegations by US-based Birim LLC

Following allegations of money laundering and fraud leveled at Ghanaian businessman and politician, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, by a US-based company, Birim LLC, the former has issued a formal response, explaining circumstances surrounding it.

A suit against the founder of the Progressive People's Party (PPP), listing him alongside his wife and their children, was for what Birim LLC said is a $63m case of alleged money laundering and wire fraud.

Groupe Nduom, the umbrella company for 60 other businesses owned by Dr Nduom, according to the writ, has put Bernie Maddoff to shame.

“The Nduom family defendants, by and through their ownership, control and use of defendants GN Bank, Gold Coast Fund Management and over 60 undercapitalised interrelated companies, collected several million dollars of depositor’s saving, investment contributions and insurance premiums, and in violation of U.S. and Ghana laws illegally laundered approximately $63,000,000 of depositors’ funds through its Virginia-based sham ‘procurement and consulting service’ company, International Business Solutions,” the writ said.

It further stated that Dr. Nduom’s business would “put Bernie Maddoff to shame”, adding that the purported “criminal scheme” involved “international money wire system – of inflated, over-invoiced and above-market rate fees disguised as payment for ‘management service’”.

Responding in a 33-paged document sighted by GhanaWeb, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom explains that the recent financial sector clean-up in Ghana contributed to “a substantial portion of its [GN Bank] loans were illegally made to Nduom-related entities without the benefit of appropriate risk assessments, managements or determinants”.

Read the full statement below: