GH¢840 million deal uncovered

The former Chairman of the Castle Confiscated Assets Allocation Committee (CCAAC) Carl Wilson, is in the news again; in a case very much related to his count losses in the infamous saga of the confiscation of impounded port vehicles.

Carl Wilson is accused by one Ben Quarshie of defrauding him of GH¢57,000 (¢570million old Ghana Cedis) with an accomplice, one Prince Abu, who gave his designation as an aide to Vice President, John Dramani Mahama, also extorting GH¢20,700 (¢270million old Ghana Cedis) from the said Quarshie.

The total amount involved in the scam, as the paper gathered, is GH¢84,000 (GH¢840million). While Carl Wilson promised to get some impounded cars for Quarshie to buy, Prince Abu told Quarshie that the Ghana High Commission in London would need some Ghanaians to replace staff of the commission who had been laid off.

Abu therefore took the said amount (GH¢20,700) from Quarshie with the assurance that his people would be offered the vacant jobs at the Ghana High Commission in London. But that assurance would not materialize, and like Carl Wilson, Abu also started playing pranks with Quarshie.

It was not too difficult for Quarshie to organize these people because he runs a non-governmental organization, which main focus is on youth development.

But rather strange to relate Quarshie, was solely nabbed by one Alhaji, who Today gathered, is an operative of the National Security (NS), the work place of Carl Wilson and sent him to the Nima police station where charges of abetment and defrauding by false pretences were preferred against him (Quarshie).

Alhaji, Today’s sorties established first took the accused to the official residence of Vice President John Mahama at Dzorwulu in Accra where the operative was told that the Vice President was having a nap.

However, Ibrahim Mahama of Engineer Planners, who happens to be a younger brother of the Veep stepped out of a room to interrogate Quarshie and asked him whether he was the one pretending to be one of the Mahamas. He then asked Alhaji to take Quarshie to the Ministry police station.

On the orders of Ibrahim, Alhaji took Quarshie back to the Nima police station, where a search party was dispatched to his house to look for exhibit relating to the charges preferred against him (Quarshie’s). But nothing incriminating was found against Quarshie.

Apparently, the National Security operative was sent on the prowl to look out for the accused, who they believed had defrauded the people who upon Carl Wilson’s orders had given their monies to Quarshie to help them secure the confiscated cars and also had been assured of jobs at the Ghana Mission in London.

Quarshie was arraigned before the Greater Accra Circuit Court at the Cocoa Affairs where he has since been remanded in police custody. Although Quarshie denied the charges in his cautionary statement to the police, he indicated in the statement that he was rather a victim of fraud by Carl Wilson and Prince Abu.

Counsel for the accused, Joshua Nimako confirmed the story and wondered the interest of the National Security in a matter that he believed could efficiently be handled by the police. He was equally not amused about the interest shown by some functionaries at the Castle in the case.

As at press time both Carl Wilson and Prince Abu were yet to report to the Nima police, although Today’s investigations have revealed that the police have requested the National Security to release Carl Wilson in particular for questioning. Abu was also yet to answer the police summons.

Insidious investigations have revealed that although top National Security personnel and other Castle functionaries visited the Nima police station last Saturday, April 17, it was without Carl Wilson. The visit, the paper has it on authority, was in connection with the Quarshie-Carl Wilson and Prince Abu case.

Sometime last year, Quarshie came into contact with Carl Wilson through Prince Abu. Quarshie had gone to the office of the Vice President to thank him for sending John Jinapor, an aide to Vice President John Mahama to speak at a youth summit he (Quarshie) organized.

Quarshie then struck an acquaintance with Prince Abu who assured Quarshie that he could talk to Carl Wilson to offer him some impounded cars to buy. Abu quickly arraigned for the meeting where Carl Wilson told Quarshie that he had to see the Chief of Staff on the issue. Quarshie obliged.

Soon Carl Wilson returned from his supposed meeting with the Chief of Staff to explain the processes involved in the purchase of the confiscated vehicles. The former chairman of the CCAC then asked Quarshie to get more people on board where indeed he also did with glee. Quarshie initially gave Carl Wilson GH¢20,000 and collected extra GH¢37,000 from those that he had organized and gave all monies to Carl Wilson. And that was where the pranks started. The two parties agreed on six salon cars, two pick-ups, (Nissan Hard Body types) and two other commercial cars.

After paying for the sum total of the vehicles, Carl Wilson Today’s investigations established, failed to answer Quarshie’s calls. His body guards who previously were answering calls on behalf of Carl Wilson also refused to answer calls from Quarshie.