GCB Manager arrested for GH¢657,700 fraud

• Posted on February 3, 2014February 3, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

FIVE persons have been arrested by the Anyinam Police in connection with a massive fraud detected at the Anyinam branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB).

The Anyinam GCB Branch Manager, John Boateng Nyantakyi, 41, and the Accountant, Seth Amankwa Owusu, 42, together with three other suspects Kyei Kissi, a farmer, Henry Darfour, a retired banker of GCB at Konongo and Bismark Owusu had allegedly defrauded the bank by illegally withdrawing an amount of GH¢657,700.

Four other persons, Kofi Agyapong, Mohammed Nurrideen, Dorothy Oppong, and one David, are all at large.

Sources told DAILY GUIDE that officials of the bank detected that huge sums of money had been withdrawn from the bank’s account and upon investigations, discovered that one Bismark Asante Owusu, a businessman, had withdrawn GH¢200,000 from the Anyinam branch on January 24, 2014 and GH¢20,000 from the Nkawkaw branch.

The same person went further to withdraw GH¢252,000, GH¢30,000, GH¢200,000 on December 27, 2013 and another on December 31, 2013.

The Anyinam branch manager, who is assisting in investigations by the police, became suspicious and reported the matter to the Area Manager, Fred Bissiw at Koforidua, as well as the Anyinam Police.

The sources disclosed that in the course of police investigations, it was revealed that Mr. Asante himself withdrew the remaining GH¢150,000 on December 24, 2013 at Nkawkaw and Anyinam branches respectively.

DAILY GUIDE further gathered that on December 27, 2013, the account holder, Mr. Asante, again withdrew GH¢252,000, and deposited it into the account of Mr. Nurrideen at GCB’s branch at Tamale in the Northern Region.

Sources said Mr. Hussein, after that, withdrew GH¢3,700 on December 30, 2013, bringing the total amount of money withdrawn to GH¢657,700.

On December 30, 2013, the branch manager was able to retrieve GH¢201,930 from the account of Mr. Hussein and another GH¢2,000 from the account of one Robert Kissi Kyei.

Mr. Kissi on January 5, 2014 was arrested at Nii Boi Town in Accra upon a tipoff and a search conducted on him revealed GH¢1,600, which he claimed was the leftover of GH¢2,000 given to him by Mr. Asante, who is his nephew and that Mr. Asante had requested him to contact his brothers, Kofi Agyapong and David, both staying at Akyem Sekyere, but now at large, to cash the huge sum of GH¢150,000 from the Anyinam branch of GCB.

He disclosed further that Mr. Asante told them to contract the retired GCB Branch Manager of Konongo, Henry Darfour, and that he had already spoken to one Seth Amankwa Owusu, the accountant/teller of the Anyinam branch.

The sources hinted that three suspects, Robert Kyei, Kofi and David, went to Henry Darfour at Nkawkaw and brought him to Sekyere who had two signed cheque leaflets in his possession belonging to Mr. Asante.

When the team stormed Akyem Sekyere, David used the initials of Robert Kyei to fill the cheques with the same values of GH¢150,000 and proceeded to the bank at Anyinam to cash the money, where the teller, Seth Amankwa advised Robert Kyei to open a new account and deposit some of the money because the money was too huge for him to carry along.

Police investigations revealed that after cashing the cheques, GH¢25,000 was paid into Henry’s account while GH¢25,000 was deposited into the newly created account of Mr. Kyei.

The Anyinam Police indicated that Mr. Kyei, in his caution statement, told the Police that the remaining GH¢100,000 was sent to Dorothy Oppong, the mother of Mr. Asante.

The Police traced Mr. Asante on January 14, 2014 and he admitted that the money was sent to him by one Mr. Ansah, a gold dealer based in the USA to purchase gold for him.

Mr. Bissiw, the area manager of GCB at Koforidua, when contacted, confirmed the story but declined to give further details.

The five suspects are still in Police custody, waiting to appear before the Koforidua Circuit Court ‘B’ on Thursday February 6, 2014.

From Bampoe Daniel, Anyinam