Provide Amoabeng, others with all documents – Court directs A-G

On May 28, 2020, 7:26 PM

A Commercial High Court in Accra has ordered the Attorney General to make available all court documents relating to the case of the former Chief Executive of the defunct UT Bank, Prince K. Amoabeng, and the four others standing trial for the collapse of the bank.

The presiding judge, Justice Philip Bright Mensah, also gave the department up to June 22, to file the disclosures and serve it on the defence team.

A Chief State Attorney, Frances Mullen Ansah, indicated to the court that the initial return date of the case was June 23, 2020, but they had a notice that the time had been brought forward to Thursday.

She, however, told the court that they were working to have the trial documents filed and served on the accused persons with the said date in mind.

The court, then, ordered the A-G’s Department to file all the necessary trial documents it would rely on in the trial.

The case has been adjourned to June 25, 2020.

The court had earlier issued a directive to the A-G to serve the former Finance Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffuor and others with court documents before June 15.

Court orders A-G to give trial documents to Duffuor and others

The Bank of Ghana on August, 7, 2017, declared UT Bank and Capital Bank insolvent after it failed to meet the minimum capital requirement. Five persons have been hauled before the court for the collapse of UT Bank.

The five persons included: Dr Johnson Paundit Asiama, a Deputy BoG Governor; Prince Kofi Amoabeng, the Founder of UT Bank; Raymond Amanfu, a former Head of the Banking Supervision Department (BSD) of the BoG; Catherine Johnson, Head of Treasury, and Robert Kwesi Armah, the General Manager of Corporate Banking, both of UT Bank.

UT Holdings, the parent company of UT Bank, which is said to be controlled by Amoabeng, was also charged with the collapse of the bank.

UT Holdings sued over unpaid ¢51m UT bank loan

It is the case of the A-G that Amoabeng “dishonestly appropriated “more than GH¢100 million of depositors’ funds that were invested in the defunct UT Bank.

The A-G has accused Dr Asiama and Amanfu of also acting unlawfully and causing financial loss to the state.

The two have been charged with willfully causing financial loss to the state by approving GH¢460 million in liquidity support, “without following prescribed mandatory conditions”.

The accused persons, in that case, have also pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Story By Gloria KAFUI Ahiable / info@theghanareport.com