..But he pleads not guilty; granted GHC200m bail
The Herald, has landed some details into the criminal trial of the founder Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the defunct Beige Bank, Michael Nyinaku.
These revelations promise to make the case an interesting one in what the government says is its quest to clean up the banking sector.
At heart of the case, is the activities of the personality of the ex-Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) President, Gifty Afenyi Dadzie and her husband, Kwasi Tetteh Afenyi, who were joint owners of the First Africa Savings and Loans.
Mr and Mrs. Afenyi Dadzie, were said to have sold some 90 percent shares of their struggling company to the Beige Group running into millions of Ghana Cedi, but strangely refused to acknowledge the transaction between two companies at the height of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).
Mr Nyinaku, has denied all the charges against him, including charges of theft and money laundering, mismanagement, bad corporate governance and even fraud.
Before these current charges, the Beige Bank boss, had been arraigned at the Circuit Court and accused of stealing over GH¢340 million which state prosecutors said, they are ready to prosecute and recover. This, the state said is part of the some GHC1.2 billion the state had to pay to depositors as a result of the issue with the commercial banks, Microfinance companies and savings and loans.
GN Bank and Unibank, both own by Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom and Dr Kwabena Duffour, respectively have been in court for almost five years challenging the claims of the Bank of Ghana, but Beige Bank, is now making an appearance in court, although it had been cooperating with the state investigators.
With several volumes of the documents confirming the change of the ownership structure of the First Africa Saving and Loan after the payment of huge sums which were duly acknowledged, Police sources have indicated that the Afenyi-Dadzie family, is said to have surprisingly denied any relationship between their company and Beige Group.
The Herald learnt that with the payments advanced to the Afenyi-Dadzie family, Beige Group, had assumed the operations of the First Africa Saving and Loan with an officer by name of Vanessa Atsu.
Afenyi-Dadzie was to resign as Managing Director, but before this could happen, the Bank of Ghana revoked the license of Beige Bank, and consolidated it as part of the Ghana Consolidated Bank (CBG).
This eventually led to some 400 workers losing their jobs with the Beige Bank, which had looked very promising until the Bank of Ghana, increased the minimum capital requirement for commercial Banks to ¢400 million from ¢120 million sometime in September 2017.
Shortly, after the denial by Mrs. Afenyi-Dadzie, a former Council of State member, during the John Kufuor presidency, is reported to have refused to also cooperate with the personnel of the Police CID in their investigations into the matter, leaving the CEO of the Beige Bank, Michael Nyinaku, at the mercy of the investigators and culminating into his prosecution which started yesterday.
The investigators, were said to have discovered some two bank accounts belonging to Beige Bank which were opened with the First Africa Savings and Loans to run its operations until the final takeover, which will see Mrs. Afenyi-Dadzie kicked out from her position as Managing Director of her Africa Savings and Loans company.
However, investigators were only interested in questioning her on the two accounts, but did not speak to Vanessa Atsu, thus setting the stage for accusations of fraud and other criminal activities.
Mrs. Afenyi-Dadzie, is Ghana’s special representative to the Council of the Wise for ECOWAS, primarily set up to mediate in regional conflicts in West Africa. She is also a founder of the prayer group AGLOW.
Yesterday, the Financial and Economic Court of the Accra High Court, granted Michael Nyinakubail in the sum of GHC200 million after pleading not guilty to all counts.
His lawyers are getting ready to mount a spirited defense for him by contesting claims of money laundering, theft, mismanagement among others level against him the case assumes.
Mr Nyinaku’s counsel, Addo Tuah, told the court that the developments occurred from about 2015 to date and the accused has religiously appeared before various Investigative bodies including Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO).
Industry players have attributed the collapse of Beige Bank, Unibank and GN Bank to the Bank of Ghana’s increment of the minimum capital requirement for commercial banks to ¢400 million from ¢120 million sometime in September 2017.
Also blamed, were certain utterances of the governor of Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison, that most of the local banks cannot meet the minimum capital requirement. This led to panic and caused a run on the deposited cash by customers.
He noted that they have never defaulted as and when they were needed and hence prayed the court to grant bail.
The Deputy Attorney-General, Alfred Tuah Yeboah, did not oppose the bail.
Presiding Judge, Afia Serwaa Asare Botwe granted a bail application with three sureties, two to be justified by either a landed property valued by government valuation body or a land valuation division of the lands commission.
The case has been adjourned to December, 22 for a case management conference.
He is to deposit his passport at the court registry and report to the police every Monday and Friday.
Mike Nyinaku, has been slapped with new charges of theft, 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 licence 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, Mr. Nyinaku allegedly used various means to 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, the investigators claimed.
Between 2017 and 2018, Mr. Nyinaku, according to investigators, 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 these customers.
Investigations also said that Mr Nyinaku, between the years 2017 and 2018, caused the transfer of 35 fixed deposit investments of 23 customers of Beige Bank totalling GH¢141,042,348.92 to the Beige Group.
Investigations further claimed 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.
