Individuals, entities involved in banking sector crisis will be prosecuted – Deputy A-G

A deputy Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, has assured that persons or entities found to have contributed to the banking sector clean-up exercise will be prosecuted.

According to him, all funds lost as a result of the clean-up exercise, undertaken by the Bank of Ghana, will be retrieved by the State.

Speaking during a media engagement on November 8, the deputy A-G said no individual or entity will be spared as the Attorney General’s Office is still focused on bringing more cases to the Court.

“The depositors get to be paid by the government. So, we are now in court to prosecute and possibly recover. If you paid an amount of GH¢1.2 billion from the taxpayers’ money, you will need that money back, and you can get it back if you take legal action as we have done," Alfred Tuah-Yeboah is quoted by myjoyonline.com

“I can assure you that there are other cases that we will prosecute to get the monies back”, the Deputy A-G added.

Meanwhile, the State recently brought charges against the founder and Chief Executive Officer of defunct Beige Bank, Michael Nyinaku, who is facing 44 counts of criminal charges involving money laundering, stealing and fraudulent breach of trust.

In the case of William Ato Essien, CEO of defunct Capital Bank Limited, the matter is awaiting judgement which is to be determined on November 17, 2022.

As part of efforts to restore confidence in the banking and specialised deposit-taking sector, the Bank of Ghana in 2017 undertook a clean-up exercise that saw the revocation of operating licenses of some eight banks, 23 savings and loans companies and more than 400 specialised deposit-taking institutions (SDIs).

According to the Receiver for some of the financial institutions, preliminary investigations found that most directors of the defunct financial institutions failed in their fiduciary responsibilities to customers and other stakeholders.

The Central Bank also said that some of the directors could not account for the activities in their institutions while others were unable to account for depositors’ funds.

Government on its part said it spent over GH¢20 billion on the banking sector clean-up exercise.

MA/FNOQ

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