Kessben granted GHC 350m bail

The Chief Executive of Kessben Group of Companies, Mr Kwabena Kesse who is standing trial for money laundering and forgery of documents, has been granted bail.

An Accra Circuit Court Thursday morning granted him bail in the sum of GH?350 million with four sureties, two to be justified according to Graphic Online court correspondent, Victor Kwawukume.

Mr Kesse is also to deposit his passport with the registry of the court and to report once a week to the investigator.

He has been charged with two counts of money laundering and forgery of documents to which he has pleaded not guilty.

He is alleged to have illegally transferred $127,931,727.65 out of Ghana to dubious locations within a period of 14 months and also forged documents to the bank to facilitate the act.

When he was first arraigned in court on Thursday July 31, 2014, the Presiding Judge, Mr Francis Obiri, dismissed an application for bail.

The court explained that, if granted bail, the accused person was likely to interfere with police investigations and remanded him for a week and asked that he should be given access to his lawyers and other close relatives.

But when he re-appeared today (August 7, 2014) his lawyer re-applied for bail, and was successful this time around.

Mr Kesse was arrested by the Bureau of National Investigations on Tuesday, July 29, 2014 together with three officials of the Stanbic Bank for allegedly facilitating the laundering of the said cash.