A Chartered Accountant with accounting and auditing firm, KPMG, Julius Ayivor, has told the Accra High Court that the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of defunct Beige Bank, Mike Nyinaku, siphoned funds of over 10,000 customers of the bank to himself and companies related to him.
That, according to the witness, caused the government to settle the affected customers with taxpayers’ money.
Mr Ayivor is currently on secondment to the Office of the Receiver of the defunct Beige Bank Limited, and the principal witness in the trial in which Nyinaku is in the dock on 43 counts of stealing, fraudulent breach of trust and money laundering involving a total of GH¢1.3 billion from the defunct bank between 2015 and 2018.
He told the Court, presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, that reviews conducted into the affairs of the defunct Bank identified a number of transactions that were suspicious and unusual in nature.
Customers
The Principal Prosecution witness noted in his witness statement that deposits of over 10,000 customers of the defunct Beige Bank totalling GH¢449 million were siphoned out of the accounts of the said customers to the account of Beige Capital Asset Management Limited (BCAM), a company that is wholly owned by Nyinaku.
Out of the GH¢449 million siphoned out of the accounts of the affected customers, he said GH¢320 million were moved into a fictitious bank account opened in the name of one of the defunct Bank’s customers – First Africa Savings and Loans Limited (FASL), without the knowledge of FASL’s management.
The witness stated that the fictitious bank account was opened in the name of FASL in March 2018 on the instructions of Mike Nyinaku, and a total of GH¢21 million was transferred out of the FASL account to the accounts of two individuals and ten companies held with the defunct bank on the instructions of Mike Nyinaku.
Nine out of the 10 companies that benefitted from the GH¢21 million transfer, he said, were owned by Nyinaku.
The companies are Alberry Limited, DYI Limited, Legacy Pensions Trust Limited, Adelia Limited, Beige Academy, Beige Assure Limited, Beventure Limited, Beige Care Limited and Beige Capital Limited, all of which received amounts totalling GH¢18 million.
Other deposits
Mr Ayivor also stated that other deposits amounting to GH¢141 million, placed with the defunct bank by 23 customers, were siphoned out of the accounts of the customers, between 2016 and 2018, into the account of The Beige Group Limited, a company wholly owned by Nyinaku, on his instructions.
The witness also spoke about how the bank’s funds amounting to GH¢282 million were siphoned out of the bank on the instructions of Nyinaku for his own benefit.
He stated that the amounts siphoned were recorded in four other assets ledger accounts in the bank’s records.
These are Director’s account, Shareholder’s account, Beige Group Account and Prepayments Project Works account.
Statement
Mr Ayivor, who read his witness statement to the court, said Nyinaku gave approval for an amount of $200,000 to be “released” from the Cash Management Unit of the bank to Mike Nyinaku’s office in July 2017 for no work done.
The witness also noted that investments made by the bank with eight financial institutions, totalling GH¢62 million, were transferred to one of Mike Nyinaku’s companies – The Beige Group Limited- on the instructions of Mike Nyinaku, on August 17, 2017.
Cross-examination
Under the cross-examination of Nyinaku’s lawyer, Thaddeus Sory, the witness told the Court that there was evidence to support the claim that Government of Ghana, through its bailout package, paid all the over 10,000 customers whose fixed deposits were siphoned by Nyinaku for his benefit and companies related to him.
The witness also stated that payment of the affected customers was done by Consolidated Bank of Ghana (CBG), in collaboration with the office of the Receiver, after a validation, exercise to ascertain and confirm the total amount involved.
Asked if evidence was available to the court to prove that indeed the alleged customers have been paid out of the Government of Ghana bailout package, Mr Ayivor answered in the affirmative and stated that he would make the data available to the Court.
Counsel for Nyinaku asked the witness to confirm whether some of the amounts he alleged were siphoned out of the bank’s account into BCAM’s account with the Bank were in the sums of GH¢5million, GH¢2million or less. The witness, in his response, stated: “Yes, there are various amounts.
“There were even instances where GH¢1,000 was siphoned out of customer accounts,” the witness added.
Brief facts
Per the brief facts of the case narrated by Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, Deputy Attorney General, Mr Nyinaku was the former Chief Executive Officer of the Beige Bank and on August 1, 2018, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) revoked the banking licence of Beige Bank and placed it in receivership.
He said a review of the financial and other records of the Bank conducted by the receiver and his team showed several suspicious and unusual transactions, which were subsequently reported to the law enforcement agencies for investigation.
The Attorney General said investigations conducted revealed that between 2015 and 2018, the accused person, as CEO of the Bank,had allegedly used various means to transfer huge sums of monies to companies related to him and for his personal benefits.