EOCO Halts ‘Fraud’ Alliance Media

…As State Anti-Graft Agency Freezes Bank Accounts of fraudulent company

The anti-graft state agency, the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), has moved to put in check the fraudulent activities of Alliance Media Ghana Limited, an advertising company that has fleeced the state of many billions of cedis, but is still fighting to have the opportunity to do its worst.

The EOCO has frozen the various bank accounts of Alliance Media where the company has been keeping the multi-million dollar ‘fraud cash’ it acquired by swindling the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL) through a ‘special fraud scheme.’

The EOCO took the action after reasonably suspecting the company of indulging in a series of financial malfeasance, including under-declaration of taxes.
The anti-graft agency has been too fast for the fraudulently-smart Alliance Media, as it has also frozen the bank accounts of some new companies formed mainly to perpetuate the criminal agenda of Alliance Media.

Formed by the directors of Alliance Media and their criminal collaborators, the new companies were the recipients of some ‘fraud cash’ transferred from the bank accounts of Alliance Media into their bank accounts.

The new companies formed purposely to receive ‘fraud cash’ from the accounts of Alliance Media include Ablekuma Multimedia Services, Green Solutions and Suncorp Limited, which are all operating accounts with the Zenith Bank.

The rest are Asaman Multimedia Services and Padvatton Enterprise respectively operating accounts with Barclays Bank and Prudential Bank.
Officials of Alliance Media and their collaborators had hoped to employ this smart fraudulent move to outwit EOCO from discovering enough evidence to nail them for their fraudulent activities, particularly on tax issues.

Unfortunately, the desired objective of their ‘criminal plan’ appears to have hit the rocks, as the EOCO thwarted their efforts by freezing the bank accounts related to the fraudulent activities of Alliance Media.

EOCO actions regarding the bank accounts are a part of its investigations into the fraudulent activities of Alliance Media.

Meanwhile, EOCO has written to officials of Alliance Media to furnish the anti-graft agency with business documents, including advertising contracts with advertisers at the Kotoka International Airport, for further investigations.
Official conservative estimates have it that Alliance Media in a ‘special fraud scheme’ has defrauded the state of over US$6 million (88 billion cedis) in its six-year airport advertising concession contract with GACL.

In August 2004, the airport authorities contracted Alliance Media to manage the entire Kotoka International Airport advertising concession on their behalf.
As part of the terms of the contract it was awarded, Alliance Media was to furnish GACL with copies of agreement it had with its clients (companies that advertised at the airport) as well as artworks of the clients. Further, after deducting its agency fee, Alliance Media was to keep 55% of the monies it earned from advert contracts with its clients, whilst 45% goes to GACL.

But the company in its thievish best set out a ‘criminal’ agenda to defraud GACL in a ‘special fraud scheme’ as it presented to GACL a false state of its financial dealings in respect of the airport advertising concession contract.
Over the past six years that Alliance Media managed the airport advertising concession, the company in most cases presented to GACL fake and fraudulent client contracts which differed from the actual and true contracts it had with its clients.

The expiry dates on the fake contracts presented to GACL were different from the actual expiry dates Alliance Media had with its clients. Indeed, Alliance Media ‘short-dated’ the contracts in reporting to GACL, thereby undercutting the latter.
The signatories and signature of the contracts Alliance Media presented to GACL were fake or forged, whilst the values on them were understated.
As a matter of fact, Alliance Media fraudulently misled its clients (advertisers such as Vodafone, Ecobank, Millicom and Cal Bank, among others) into believing that they had long term contracts at the airport, when, in actual fact, it had presented to GACL, fraudulently erroneous contracts purported to have been signed by the advertisers.

In reality, however, what the advertisers actually signed was different in value, signature and duration from what the NPP-backed company submitted to the airport authorities.

As a result of such bold fraudulent move, Alliance Media got GACL into believing that it was earning far less money from advertisers. Consequently the calculation of the 45%-55% arrangement in the concession contract was based on the fake clients contacts Alliance Media submitted to GACL which is far lower in value than the actual contacts

From 2004 to date, Alliance Media engaged 69 companies or clients who advertised at the airport. The Enquirer’s probe into only a few of the 69 contracts the company had with advertisers revealed some shocking details of how the state has lost huge sums of money as a result of the fraudulent dealings of Alliance Media.

Comparative analyses made on four fake client contracts as well as the actual contracts of Vodafone, Ecobank, Milicom(tigo) and Cal Bank revealed that Alliance Media pocketed and concealed from GACL, a total of $404,700 in just one year. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

The contract documents, copies of which are in the possession of The Enquirer show that a Vodafone contract with Alliance media, actually started from April 1, 2009 to March 31st, 2010 a period of 12 months. The monthly charge for the contract is $38,550. But Alliance Media presented a falsified contract which had April 15, 2009 to August I5, 2009 (5 months) to GACL. The forged Vodafone contract has a monthly charge of $15,850. This enabled the company to fraudulently pocket and conceal from GACL an amount of $272,7OO.

By the same process, Alliance fraudulently pocketed $54,000 from a Millicom (Tigo) advertising contract; $648,000 from an Ecobank contract and $13,200 from a Cal Bank contract. If these contracts were extended that would mean Alliance Media quadrupling its earnings.

Worst in some cases, Alliance Media chose not to disclose contract details it had with some of the advertising companies to GACL, in total disregard to the terms of the contract it had with GACL.

Obviously unashamed of such a gargantuan fraud against the state, Alliance Media still had the guts to put in a bid for the airport advertising concession when GACL conducted a tender process.

Unfortunately for Alliance Media, its insatiable greed for ‘fraud cash’ thwarted its avowed ambition of continuing with the fraud, as GACL stalled the tender process after detecting that Alliance had been indulging in a ‘special fraud scheme’ against the airport authorities for the past six years.

As a matter of fact, the GACL had been compiling detailed accounts to conduct a forensic audit into the financial affairs of Alliance Media to retrieve monies the company concealed from the airport authorities through a legal action.
Alliance Media has termed the decision of GACL not to renew its advertising concession contract as nonsensical and, as a result, the company, with the support of some elements in the NPP, is going through all lengths to have its way.

Enquirer’s radar has picked some big shots of the NPP ‘lobbying’ government officials, as well as some board members of GACL, on behalf of Alliance Media, to ensure that the company is granted another airport advertising concession at all cost.