Son of former National Investment Bank MD charged for alleged stealing

Stephen Poku-Gyimah, said to be the son of the former Managing Director (MD) of the National Investment Bank (NIB) has been charged for alleged stealing.

The accused person is facing six counts of charges including fraudulent transaction, forgery of other document, and stealing, contrary to section 124(1) of the criminal offences act 1960 (Act29).

Poku-Gyimah who was arraigned on Thursday, October 28, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

He has however been admitted to bail in the sum of GHc1, 000, 000 with two sureties to be justified after his lawyer Daniel Oteng made application for bail.

The court presided over by Her Honour Evelyn Asamoah also ordered him to deposit all his passport at the courts registry.

While adjourning the case to November 23, the court directed the prosecution led by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Sylvester Asare to file all disclosures as required.

Brief facts

The brief facts of the case as presented to the court by ASP Asare were that, the complainant is the Managing Director of Eland International Ghana Ltd (EIGL).

According to him, the EIGL is a Company incorporated under the laws of Ghana.

The Accused he said was a former employee of the Complainant and that during the month of January, 2019, complainant reported theft, forgery, and related offences against Accused person.

ASP Asare told the court that, Police commenced investigations into the matter which led to the Accused being arrested. Investigations revealed that EIGL is a subsidiary company of Eland International Group Ltd, Bankok (EIGLB), based in Thailand.

According to him, upon the advice of Daniel Charles Gyimah, (former MD, National Investment Bank [NIB]) his son (accused person) was employed by the Complainant in September, 2007, as Business Department Manager of the Complainant’s Company to facilitate Complainant’s administrative transactions with the National Investment Bank (NIB).

He told the court that, upon assumption of office, accused advised Complainant to purchase land for the construction of a warehouse for EIGL.

Property agent

According to him, after convincing the Complainant of his intentions, he (accused) contacted one Winfred Kumah Apawu, a property agent to assist him purchase parcel of land for the Complainant.

He said, Kumah got a parcel of land situated at Achimota- Neoplan – Accra measuring an approximate area of 1.82 acres with an existing structure on the land.

ASP Asare explained that, the Accused, acting for and on the behalf of the Complainant, entered into a purchase agreement with Barton Annan Johnson and Samuel Maxwell Awusu Johnson – owners of the land through Kumah.

The parties he told the court settled on GHC300,000.00 as the total cost of the parcel of land including the existing structure.

“Unknown to the complainant, accused inflated the cost of the land to GH¢700,000 instead of the agreed price of GH¢300,000,” he stated.

“The accused person received the GH¢700,000 from the complainant. Unknown to the complainant, accused bought two(2) parcels of land at different location namely Mile-7 and Achimota-Neoplan respectively in the name of EIGL with GH¢700,000 he received from the complainant.

Wearhouse construction

He said, the accused subsequently, demanded and received GH¢4,226,003.2 from the complainant for the construction of the warehouse at the Achimota Neoplan site.

“He also caused to be disbursed, cash the sum of GH¢191,700.00 from the company’s Cedi current account number 100-01007281 with the NIB for the continuation of the construction works on the same warehouse.

He said “It was further established that the Accused later directed the property agent to prepare the indenture for Neoplan site in his (accused) disguised name ‘Nana S.Y poku-Gyimah.’

“Accused also caused and disbursed, cash the sum of GH¢172,900.00 and $240,000.00 USD respectively for the construction of the same warehouse. After the construction of the warehouse, accused changed the name on the document of the land from his disguised name “Nana S.Y Poku-Gyimah” to SANIS 5215 Limited, a company he incorporated sometime in May 2008.

Change of account

The prosecutor said, the Accused on November 13, 2007, “wrote to the complainant’s lawyer Justine Tete Donkor and requested for his signature on the EIGL cheque to enable him transfer an amount of GH¢32,974.00 and $6,108.00 from SG-SSB Bank to EIGL’s account at First Atlantic Merchant Bank and GH¢6,108.00 from SG-SSB Bank to EIGL’s account to NIB.

“Accused transferred the amounts stated above, into the EIGL cedis account number 100-01007280-01 and dollar account No.40012114048-01 at NIB and subsequently withdrew same without the consent of the complainant fraudulently changed EIGL account mandate and made himself the sole signatory to EIGLs cedi account number 100-01007280-01 and dollar account number-40012114048-01 at NIB and withdrew GHc346, 766.71 as indicated on the charge sheet.”

“Accused in a letter to the then MD NIB captioned “Changed of EIand International Ghana Limted account mandate” and dated April 30, 2008 indicated that, the auditors EIGL has been changed from Alex Thompson and Co to Baffour Awuah and associates and attached a purported copy of registrar General’s department notification.

“He also indicated in the letter that, the company’s secretary had also been changed from Mr Felix Bork to Mr S Yaw Poku that is accused person’s disguised name.

“Investigations revealed that, accused person who resigned from complainant’s company in sometime 2009 represented himself in 2012 as the country director of EIGL, and made a multitude sale of the Mile 7 parcel of land belonging to EIGL to Preg xiao and Jiang and George Brain Ann of modern engineers company limited and Mr Ofori Atta of forth lucky estate at the same time without authority.”

During interrogation, he said “the accused claimed ownership of the warehouse and stated that, it was a mortgage facility made available to him by prudential bank and he was an employee at the said bank.”

He said, prudential bank however “denied giving any such facility to the acquire the land or warehouse.”