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Opinions of Saturday, 30 November 2013

Columnist: Sarpong, Justice

Tsatsu Tsikata Lied By Speaking In "Tongues"

, Exposed By Correspondence

Sarpong, Justice

Tsatsu Tsikata is a con man who has ridden on his reputation as an intelligent fellow to dupe Taxpayers of Ghana since he came in contact with Rawlings during his PNDC days till he was made the CEO of GNPC which he managed as his own personal property and used the assets of this company in guaranteeing loans for friends and betting in oil futures by hedging, in essence playing "lottery" with GNPC assets. Tsatsu lost on the hedging deal with Societe Generale(SG) and tried to con his way out of it but failed and is now blaming those who cleaned the mess he left at GNPC.

When Tsatsu appeared before the Sole Commissioner, Justice Apau who is trying to unravel what went on with the drill ship, he told the sole Commisioner the drill ship was making money for Ghana and he had no intention of selling it neither did he mortgage it to SG but the correspondence between Tsatsu and SG tells a different story and shows Tsatsu told SG he will sell the drill ship and pay the GNPC indebtness from the proceeds of this sale. This is part of the correspondence between Tsatsu and SG Officials:

From Societe Generale Mr .T. Tsikata Ghana National Petroleum Corporation Petroleum House Private mail bag Tema Ghana 19 Junuary 1998 "Dear Tsatsu, We refer to your letter dated 14th January, in which you provided us with your proposed Payment Schedule in respect of the Margin Call Position. The proposal that you have made cannot be considered to be acceptable by the Bank in view of the term and amounts. The following table (deleted) describes how we require the outstanding to be met, which incorporate the necessity to meet the premium and cash settlement amounts due. In evidence of your acceptance of the foregoing, we request that you sign and return the attached copy of this letter, by fascimille in 00 44 1771 551 4037 providing the original by courier. At the time of writing, we wish to advise you that as you have stated that the proposed sale of the DS11 rig will be concluded within 48 hours from today's date and that GNPC will be in a position to confirm such matters by no later than 23rd January 1998. Under the circumstances, in the event that your confirmation of the foregoing is not forthcoming by this date, Societe Generale will require the provision of a formal mandate as previously discussed with Messrs Nagle, Walker and Bicknell. This document should be made available by no later than our close business on Monday 26th January. Yours sincerely

Urgent and Confidential From CSFP March 16 1998 Mr Tsatsu Tsikata Chief Executive Ghana National Petroleum Corporation Tema Ghana By fax: 00233 222 028554/24/772 484 "Dear Mr Tsikata We write inference to monies owed to Credit Suisse Financial Products ("CSFP") since January 26 1998 totalling USD 18,470,827 plus accrued interest thereon. Both Mr Simonte and Mr Rodrigues have been trying to contact you by fax and by telephone on a number of occasions over the past two weeks. Your office in Ghana has been taking telephone messages and advised us that they have been in contact with you, however they have been unable, when requested, to advise us of your travel plans overseas to so that we could try to contact you directly. We understand that the fax sent to you by Mr Rodrigues, dated March 9 1998, was received by your office in Ghana, and that the information therein had been communicated to you. As you should therefore be aware, the letter day to provide us with an update on your position. Despite telephone messages left both before and after this fax, by both Mr Rodrigues and Mr Simonte, we have still not been contacted. As you understand, the above monies owed by Ghana National Petroleum corporation (GNPC to CSFP, is considered to be a significant sum and delay in its repayment a serious matter. As Mr Rodrigues has stressed in previous discussions with you, we have requested that you keep us regularly informed on a weekly basis as to the progress of the sale of the Discover 611 ("D511"), since this was intended to be the means of repayment for monies owed to CSTP. Unfortunately we have failed to receive any responses from either yourself or any of your staff in Ghana in response to Mr Rodrigues' fax and any telephone messages that have been left. We have still not been contacted by you since your fax of February 25 1998 (although you are aware of Mr Rodrigues' office, mobile and home telephone numbers.) In good faith CSFP has allowed GNPC a significant amount of time to repay the monies owed, not withstanding that we are fully entitled to resort to formal legal proceedings to recover this amount. We trust you will understand our concern therefore not only on the lack of communication by yourself and your staff to CSFP, (but also about the delay in paying us a significant amount of outstanding repayment of any monies owed by GNPC in the month of March, in accordance with your advice to us in early February. In light of the above, the bank kindly requests that you (or your representative) contact Mr Steve Simonte (office telephone number: 144 170 888 1586) by 4pm (London Time) on Tuesday 17th March to fully update us on the current situation. Should you be unable to contact Mr Simonte on Tuesday, then please contact Ms Richmond (Tel No: 888 2033), or failing that Mr Rodrigues (Tel No. 888 2959). At that time, apart from a general update, we request that you provide us with the necessary information demonstrating: The date by which, in the month of March 1998, that CSFP will be fully repaid; Confirmation that GNPC still intends to repay CSFP directly from the proceeds of the sale of Discover 511 ("D511") or should this still not be the case, what alternative sources of repayment will be used by GNPC.

Maybe Tsatsu can explain these letters from society Generale away but there is evidence here that, Tsatsu promised to sell the drill ship. There were too many lies told in gibberish nonsense by Tsatsu. What is the meaning of this quote;

"Tsatsu Tsikata said a "mortgage document" was drafted between GNPC and Societe General to cover the oil drill ship but that document had no indication of any amount "due and payable."

With the correspondence above between SG and TT, one can infer and rightly so in doing that Tsatsu collateralized the drill ship and he lied when he said he did not do so. Tstau initially told the whole world that GNPC did not owe SG anything and they have won three cases against SG in London and USA and NPP paid an amount that was not owed but read what Tsatsu told the sole Commissioner;

"He said recognising that SG had made some payments to the GNPC, there was the need to reimburse it, and so the two parties subsequently entered into discussions in that regard. But given the soundness of GNPC’s contention, there was an indication that SG was willing to settle for a lesser amount than the $40 million it had earlier claimed, as it subsequently settled on $20 million as reimbursement"

Tsatsu had earlier told Ghanaians and Justice Apau that, SG has accepted 12 million dollars as settlement, now it is 20 million dollars.

Tsatsu's contention that he also won two cases in USA against SG is true but has no bearing on whether GNPC owed SG or not. The case Tsatsu won against SG in USA was about the demand SG made on GNPC to bring the drill ship to SG in Texas which the court ruled it cannot compel GNPC to bring the ship to them, it did not mean SG has no authority to seize the ship which they eventually did in Oman and was going to sell it after valuing it at 20 million dollars.

The only mystery remaining on the sale of this ship is what happened to the 3.5 million dollars after all debts were paid and that is what K.T Hammond, Ken Dapaah and those NPP officials have to explain to Ghanaians and not whether NPP sold a ship that was already in the hands of those people who had rightly seized it after it had been collateralized to defray a debt Tsatsu stupidly incurred.

Justice Sarpong

(CARDINAL of TRUTH)