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General News on Friday, May 3, 2019
Source: Graphic.com.gh
2019-05-03
The Attorney General informed the court of the conduct of the first accused, Daniel Duku
The defendants in the Venture Capital Trust Fund case who are on trial for causing a financial loss of 42.8 million GH ¢ to the state have been granted bail of 170 million GH ¢.
Each was admitted in surety of 50 million GH ¢ with two to three sureties to justify.
In addition, the accused must deposit their pbadport with the clerk.
The Prosecution must provide the accused with all documents, including those on which they will not rely for trial.
Attorney General and Minister of Justice Gloria Afua Akuffo led the prosecution Friday morning.
Earlier, she had informed the court of the conduct of the first accused, Daniel Duku, who had violated bail conditions during the investigation, which had delayed the start of the case.
She therefore asked the court to take this into account before granting bail.
Accused persons
Duku, also a former CEO of the Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF), was indicted with five other people for causing a financial loss of 42.8 million GH ¢ in the state.
Others are Richard Lbadey Agbenyefia, a former member of Parliament and a former member of the Board of Trustees of VCTF (the "Board"); Irene Anti-Mensah, who was also executive badistant at Duku, was also responsible for VCTF's investments; Kofi Sarpong, was an investment officer of VCTF; Frank Aboagye Mensah, a businessman, her husband Irene and Charity Opoku, also known as Charity Ameyaw, was an accountant at the VCTF.
They have been accused of 86 counts of intentionally causing financial losses to the state, of committing crimes, of stealing, of having defrauded false pretenses and made false checks.
Read also: The former boss of venture capital and 5 other people accused of causing a financial loss of 42.8 million GH ¢
Conditions of the deposit
Duku was allowed to pay a deposit of 50 million GH ¢ with three bonds; Agbenyefia, 30 million GH ¢, three bonds; Irene and Mensah, 20 million GH ¢ with two bonds; Sarpong, 40 million GH ¢ with three sureties and charity, 30 million GH with three sureties.
The court, presided over by Judge Anthony Oppong, admitted the defendants to bail after their lawyers made an application to that effect.
He ordered that the bonds should be justified.
facts
According to the facts, Duku facilitated the recruitment of Irene and Sarpong, who were his co-workers at the Ghana Investment Promotion Authority (GIPA).
Upon taking office, Duku set up a lending facility called the Development Assistance Fund (DAF), which aimed to provide credit directly to individuals and businesses, in flagrant violation of the VCTF Act and contrary to VCTF's objectives.
Despite the opinion of VCTF's lawyers on the illegality of the proposed loan system, the Duku would have managed to obtain the approval of the Committee for the creation of the DAF system.
According to the prosecution, Duku, on the approval of the board of directors, could approve only loans of less than 30 000 GH ¢ and explained that any amount exceeding 30 000 GH ¢ was subordinate to the approval of the board of directors.
"The Council also approved strict guidelines under which loans must be disbursed. An amount of 1 000 000 GH, which has subsequently been increased to 2 000 000 GH, has been approved by the Council as a revolving fund for the DAF project ", have revealed the facts.
More revelations
The investigations revealed that the Duku had disbursed various amounts under the program, the total of which far exceeded the approved amount of 2 million GH.
The prosecution stated that prior to the appointment of Duku as CEO and the creation of DAF, the VCTF was running an existing system that provided loans to farmers in the Northern and Brong Ahafo regions for the cultivation of DAF. sorghum.
The loan system known as the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) provided loans to certain Venture Capital Financing Companies (VCFCs), namely SINAPI ABA and Techno Serve Company Limited, for the purpose of granting loans to farmers. The SPV had a minimum of 50,000 GH and 500,000 GH as the maximum amount that could be paid at any given time to venture capital companies.
He further revealed that the program had worked successfully until Duku took the lead in June 2010, when the project stopped.
However, around October 2010, the SPV was reintroduced at the request of Duku and, under the new arrangement, it had to be controlled by Duku.
The prosecution stated that, although Duku has a loan approval threshold of up to 50,000 GH, he has "persistently approved loans allegedly under DAF and SPV well above its threshold directly to a number of companies, some of which were non-existent ".
"Some of these fictitious companies had addresses belonging to the first accused," said the prosecution. The defendants also used the names of a number of companies owned by other people to obtain loans without the knowledge, without permission and without consent. business owners.
More offenses
The facts further indicated that Charity, the VCTF accountant and a signatory of the VCTF account, had badisted the Duku by signing blank checks to provide loans to some of these businesses during their leave.
He said some of the checks were issued even before the purported loan applications were received.
Duku, blank checks signed by Charity would have been used and would have granted loans totaling 4,240,000 GHACs, resulting in a total loss of 12,601,796.25 GH ¢, representing principal and interest accrued from the Fund.
Financial challenges
The prosecution stated that the board, after realizing the financial challenges the Fund had to face to ensure its sustainability, had asked Duku in 2013 to stop paying loans under the DAF scheme and to focus rather on recoveries.
According to the lawsuit, Duku misled the board by stating that it had recovered 81% of the outstanding DAF loans when it knew that it was false and therefore obtained the authorization of the Board of Directors. resume disbursements under the DAF scheme.
The prosecution said the council had based on Duku's false report and had raised the DAF fund from 1 500 000 GH to 2 000 000 GH.
Again, in January 2015, the Board asked Duku to completely stop disbursing the loans and focus on recovering the loans already disbursed, but ignored the instructions.
Termination
According to the prosecution, although the appointment of Duku has been revoked
In June 2015, although the appointment of Duku was revoked, he remained in office until September 2015, during which time he made other loans to companies, some of which belonged to his official driver and some friends.
During this period, Duku would have obtained $ 26,063 to participate in a formal program in the United States of America (United States).
The facts revealed that although Duku did not attend the program, he failed to pay the money to the chest and dishonestly took the total amount.
"The jury, having realized that the first accused was not present in the program, instructed him to repay the $ 26,063 to VCTF in response to the directive of the first accused who had issued fake checks to VCTF, who were dishonored when presented to the bank, "said the witness. . Duku is the first accused.
Other accused
The prosecution further noted that Richard obtained loans on behalf of companies on the basis of false statements to VCTF without knowing it, without the permission or approval of the owners of the companies, while in other cases, the loans had been obtained on behalf of nonexistent companies.
Irene and Sarpong, who are responsible for evaluating and processing loan applications from VCTF, have not done the due diligence on loan applicants, but instead have facilitated the use of loans. granting loans through falsified records by entering false information on loan application forms.
Frank would have used non-existing companies to borrow from VCTF and acted with Duku, Irene and Sarpong to dishonestly use various amounts of money from VCTF on behalf of these companies.
"The evidence will show that these acts, as well as other acts committed by the accused, resulted in the loss of more than 42,856,470.21 ¢ of GH ¢ to the benefit of the Republic," the facts said.
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