CEO of defunct Beige Bank Michael Nyineku acquitted by Court of Appeal

The founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the defunct Beige Bank, Michael Nyinaku, has been acquitted after a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal unanimously upheld his appeal against an order to open his Defence against the charges.

This was after the panel held that after the prosecution had closed its case it failed to adduce evidence sufficient enough to warrant a need for the accused to open his defence against the charges levelled against him at the High Court.

The view of the appeal court as summarised was that based on the evidence before the court, all the acts of impropriety levelled against the accused were acts performed in his capacity as the Chief Executive Officer of the then institution.

These acts were not executed by him alone but with he the participation of numerous other officials of the Bank.

It holds the view that, these acts had been copiously documented in the banks records evidencing the non-existentence of any intentions to hide them.

It was the case of the court that, there was no evidence before the trial court to confirm that any of these acts were in violation of any of the bank’s policies or other related policies. There was also no evidence to establish any fact that these acts were not beneficial to the bank.

History of the case

Following the closure of Prosecutions case in 2023 after parading six witness, the trial judge, Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, ordered him to open his defence to the 43 (counts) charges.

The Court made the order after holding the view that prosecution through its witnesses was able to establish a prima facie evidence for which reason, Mr Nyineku should open his defense.

Dissatisfied with the decision of Justice Asare-Botwe, a Justice of the Court of Appeal who was presiding as an additional High Court judge, on submission of no case to answer, Mr Nyineku through his lawyers led by Thaddeus Sory filed an appeal against the order.

Despite the pendency of the appeal against the ruling, the trial proceeded with the accused person having as at date already called 29 out of a scheduled list of 41 Witnesses set to testify on his behalf.

However, on Thursday, July 24, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal presided over by Justice Emmanuel Ankamah, upheld his submission against the order to open his defense.

The panel which also includes Justice Dr. Ernest Owusu-Dapaa and Justice Kofi Akrowiah acquitted him on all the charges.

Mr. Nyinaku, who doubled as the Chief Executive Officer of the defunct bank, was accused of siphoning customers funds and was charged for stealing GH¢2.1 billion of depositors’ money from the bank.

He pleaded not guilty to all the 43 charges which included stealing, fraudulent breach of trust and money laundering and has been granted bail while facing trial.

Witnesses

State Prosecutors paraded six witnesses in court to testify in the case.

Mr Nyinaku, was initially granted bail in the sum of GH¢200 million. This amount was later varied by the Court of Appeal on the grounds that the said amount was onerous.

Brief facts

Per the brief facts of the case narrated by Alfred Tuah-Yeboah then the Deputy Attorney General, Mr Nyinaku was the former Chief Executive Officer of the Beige Bank and that on August 1, 2018, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) revoked the banking license 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 investigations.

The AG 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.

He alleged that the funds transferred were depositors’ funds lodged with the Beige Bank and that between 2017 and 2018, Nyinaku had caused the transfer of GHC10,071.00 fixed deposit account held with Beige Bank in which various customers placed a total of GHC448,636,210.21 to Beige Capital Asset Management Limited, (BCAM), without the knowledge and consent of the customers.

Plot

The AG said BCAM was a limited liability company wholly owned by the Beige Group Limited (Beige Group), an entity which in turn was wholly owned by the accused person, adding that the accused person between 2017 and 2018 caused the transfer of 35 fixed deposit investments of 23 customers of Beige Bank valued GHC141,042,348.92 to the Beige Group, a Company wholly owned by the accused person and its majority shareholders of Beige Bank.

The prosecution said further investigations revealed that in March 2018, the accused person had caused a “fictitious” second account to be opened in the name of First African Savings and Loans (FASL), an existing account holder with Beige Bank, without the knowledge of the board and management of FASL.

The AG said the accused person then caused the transfer of the sum of GHC320 million from the accounts of various Beige Bank customers into the bank accounts of BCAM held with Beige Bank.

The GHC320 million was subsequently transferred from the BCAM account held with the Beige Bank into the “fictitious” FASL account that had been opened in Beige Bank’s books on the instructions of the accused person allegedly, said the prosecution.

It said between March 2018 and August 2018, GHC 21,123,270.96 out of the GHC320 million was transferred from the “fictitious” FASL bank account to some two individuals and ten companies, nine of which were related to Nyinaku, on his instructions.

Emails and other internal documents

The AG said again, between 2015 and 2017, the accused person, through the use of payment vouchers and other internally generated documentation, had caused the sum of GHc1,465,000.00 of depositors’ funds lodged with Beige Bank to be paid to himself and other persons, the Court heard.

It said these transactions were recorded in a general ledger account of the bank described as Directors’ account.

It added that it came out that the accused person through the use of payment vouchers, emails and memos, had caused a total of GHC20,599,052.58 of depositors’ funds lodged with Beige Bank to be transferred to a number of a general ledger accounts of the bank described as shareholders’ account.

The AG also said, between 2016 and 2017, the accused, through the use of payment vouchers, had caused a total amount of GHC141,742,087.70 of depositors’ funds lodged with Beige Bank to be transferred to a number of companies and individuals for his benefits allegedly, it said.

It said the transactions were recorded in the general ledger accounts of the Bank described as Prepayment- Project Works Account, and that between 2017 and 2018, the accused person using payment vouchers, e-mails, and memo’s had further caused the sum of GHC118,076,813.09 of depositors’ funds lodged with Beige Bank to be transferred to several companies and individuals for his benefit allegedly.

It said the transactions were also recorded in a general ledger account of the bank described as Beige Group Account.

The AG again said investigations had established that the money the accused allegedly dishonestly appropriated from the Beige Bank remained unpaid as of August 1, 2018, when the Bank’s license was revoked by BoG.