Chairman Wontumi to be prosecuted over GHS24m EXIM Bank fraud – AG

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Chairman Wontumi

Dr Dominic Ayine, the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, has revealed the state will prosecute Chairman Wontumi, Wontumi Farms and its directors over alleged GHS24m EXIM Bank fraud.

According to the Attorney-General, Chairman Wontumi and his company, Wontumi Farms Limited, made fraudulent misrepresentations to Exim Bank to obtain the loan facility.

He revealed that investigations conducted by the Economic and Organised Crime Office revealed evidence of defrauding by false pretences, forgery, and causing financial loss to the state.

Dr Dominic Ayine announced that Bernard Antwi Boasiako, chief promoter of Wontumi Farms, Exim Bank approved a medium term-loan facility of Ghs18,734,260.00, which included a grant component of Ghs6,768,260.00.

This offer was accepted via a letter dated January 23, 2018, and Chairman Wontumi, acting as the Chief Executive Officer of Wontumi Farms Limited and Thomas Antwi Boasiako, as director of Wontumi Farms Limited.

The offer letter indicated that the approval of the medium-term loan facility was subject to the Bank’s terms and conditions. The loan offer letter further stated that the loan was secured with 10,000 acres of the farmland of Wontumi Farms Limited at Asare Nkwanta.

The breakdown of the approved Ghs18,734,260.00 loan as per the offer letter is as follows: 

Purchase of agricultural plant and machinery – GH₵3,865,000.00

Working capital – GH₵8,101,000.00

Grant -staff cost and consultancy fees – GH₵6,768,260.00.

Dr Dominic Ayine revealed that the equipment was never procured, adding that the farming enterprise never materialised, with no young persons being employed in Asare Nkwatia.

According to the Attorney General, the company and its director and CEO forged a receipt in order to deceive Exim Bank into believing that they complied with the loan conditions.

Speaking to the media in Accra on Monday, December 22, the Attorney General detailed, “Our investigations established that Chairman Wontumi had approached Kas-Sama Enterprise, an industrial equipment dealer and obtained an invoice with a promise to return to purchase the said equipment. He never went back to purchase the equipment. Instead, he forged the invoice he obtained from Kas-Sama Enterprise by removing the word “invoice” and replacing it with “receipt. This forged receipt was then submitted to Exim Bank as proof that he had purchased the said equipment after the disbursement.

“The owner of Kas-Sama Enterprise confirmed to investigators that the only document he issued to Wontumi Farms through Chairman Wontumi was an invoice and not a receipt,” he said.

“The forged receipt submitted to Exim Bank suggested that Kas-Sama Enterprise acknowledged receipt of Four Million Ghana Cedis for the purchase of earth-moving machines and farming equipment. The so-called receipt had on it “50 days to supply and 1 year guarantee and service, meaning that it was a pro-form invoice and not a receipt of payment,” the AG said.

The Attorney General revealed that prosecution will commence after the Christmas break, following the exact amount being confirmed by EXIM Bank.

He added, “In the face of the evidence we have gathered in this investigation, thoroughly conducted by EOCO, we have made the decision to prosecute Wontumi farms, and it’s directors with defrauding by false pretences, forgery and causing financial loss to the state in the sum of GHS24,255,735.

“This figure represents the principal sum plus the interest that has accrued so far. By the time we file charges, which will definitely be after the Christmas break, it might be that this figure would have increased because the interest on the principal keeps compounding.

“So we will get the exact figure of the amount that is involved in this criminal enterprise from the EXIM bank before we file charges in court.”

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