The $3.4m Account: Who Owns It?

The search for foreign accounts in which stolen funds from Ghana have been lodged has within the past three weeks made great strides. One account, which has been tracked, had a healthy balance as at June 2001. The account in Zurich, was opened in March, 1997 with an initial cash payment of US $250,000.

Between February 1998 and January 1999, there were payments totalling US $11.25 million, of which a total of $1.85 million was paid in cash, with the balance sent to the accounts through transfers.

Credible sources to the companies helping the government to track the stolen funds have hinted that some of the inflows between 1997 and 2000 have been tracked to three companies, two of them operating in Ghana. One of them, through it lawyers has indicated its preparedness to come clean regarding the circumstances of the payments. In exchange, the companies want to be assured of non-prosecution and unnecessary harassment.

An interesting feature of the Zurich account is that there were standing payments to certain schools in Britain and the US obviously for payment of their children’s education.

Two companies which helped the Nigerian government to recover over US$2 billion stolen by the late Nigerian President, Sani Abacha have also been tracking the possible names of other accounts. As at press time, the investigating companies were tracking the movement of $10.5 million from a London account into three off-shore accounts. The date of the transfer was December 18, 2000.