GRA and EOCO to investigate Sir John

TO INVESTIGATE SIR JOHN

The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie aka Sir John, is currently the subject of further controversy ahead of Saturday’s Congress in Tamale. This time around Sir John is in trouble with the State regarding paying taxes on his car rental business in Kumasi.

Information available to us suggest that the Economic and Organised Crime Organisation (EOCO) and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) are both investigating the car rental business of Sir John, and will very shortly commence proceedings against him. It is suspected that the source of the funds used to start up the car rental business is unknown and that there are many unanswered questions regarding the car rental business.

Our enquiries at the GRA earlier today revealed that firstly, the GRA has discovered large sums of money that were paid into the bank account of the car rental business and secondly, that taxes have not been paid since the setting up of the car rental business. Particularly, there have been no payments of corporate tax to the Kumasi Office of the GRA. GRA considers these lapses in payment of taxes on the part of Sir John very serious because as a public figure, they believe Sir John should set an example for others to follow.

We also made enquiries at EOCO to verify the information we had received. A caseworker, who requested to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the investigation, indicated to us that EOCO was concerned about large sums of money, which was transferred from Sir John’s personal bank account into the bank account of a supposed business located in Kumasi, which business their investigations revealed is the car rental business belonging to Sir John.

The EOCO caseworker also informed us that EOCO had frozen Sir John’s personal bank accounts and the bank accounts of the car rental business as of April 7, 2014 for investigation. EOCO intends to go to court in a couple of weeks to secure a confirmation order regarding the freezing of the bank accounts to prevent Sir John from accessing the said accounts whilst investigation is pending.

EOCO’s preliminary conclusion is that there may have been some money laundering activities involved and that they would be inviting Sir John very soon for questioning. We asked both institutions what prompted their respective investigations; and they confirmed that it was based on a petition dated 11th February 2014 they had received from one Maxwell Afriyie.

These allegations are very damning and may affect the chances of Sir John, and by extension, the Party. If he is found to be guilty of money laundering, he faces imprisonment. The NPP will not want that to happen and therefore this matter ought to be dealt with quickly.

--

NPP News Digest

nppnewsdigest@gmail.com