It has emerged at the Financial and Economic Division of the High Court in Accra that the Investigator in the case in which the founder of defunct Beige Bank is standing trial is not aware of details of a Share Purchase agreement.
The agreement was between the Beige Group and First Africa Group (FAG) for Beige Group to take control of First Africa Savings and Loans (FASL)
FAG is the mother body of FASL that had an agreement with Beige Group for the acquisition of FASL by BEIGE Group.
However, despite having been assigned the responsibility of investigating the matter, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Joseph Abednego Atsah, the investigator said he was not aware of the details clearly stated in the share purchase agreement.
ASP Abednego Atsah, the Fifth Prosecution Witness in the ongoing trial had his Witness Statement given on December 8, 2022, adopted by the Court as his evidence-in-chief including various exhibits on July 7.
His evidence to the Court presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, a Justice of the Court of Appeal sitting as an additional High Court judge is to corroborate the Prosecution’s charges that have been levelled against Mr Michael Nyineku.
Mr Michael Nyinaku, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the defunct bank, has been accused of allegedly siphoning customers’ funds and has been charged with stealing GH¢2.1 billion of depositors’ money from the bank.
He has pleaded not guilty to 43 charges including stealing, fraudulent breach of trust and money laundering and has been granted bail.
Beige Group & FASL Purchase agreement
By a Share Purchase agreement between The BEIGE Group and FAG, the two entities agreed for Beige Group to the takeover full control and management of FASL within 90 days of the effective date of the share purchase agreement.
The agreement had in it, three stages for which the takeover was to be completed – the Commencement date, the transitional period and the Cut-off date. All of these milestone dates were scheduled to occur within a period of 90 days after which Beige Group was to take full control and responsibility of FASL.
As part of representations made by FAG to BEIGE, FAG which was then jointly represented by Kwesi Tetteh Dadzie and Gifty Affenyi Dadzie assured BEIGE that they had obtained all the relevant approvals from the BoG in respect of the share sale transaction. However, this turned out not to be true.
Under Cross-Examination from Defence Lawyers led by Lawyer Thaddeus Sory, ASP Abednego Atsah, Stationed at the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service and who had worked with the police for 21 years, said he was not aware of full details of the agreement despite investigating the matter.
Cross-Examination
ASP Abednego Atsah, who had worked with the Police for the past 21 years, had made reference to the share purchase agreement in paragraph 9 of his witness.
But did not attach a copy of the said agreement as stated to his statement to the Court.
Shown a copy of the share purchase agreement by Lawyer Thaddeus Sory, (Marked as Exhibit 20) between two entities one known as First African Group (FAG) and the Beige Group who are seller and buyer respectively, he confirmed to the court that the Share Purchase Agreement.
Asked by Mr. Sory, that from the parties to the agreement per exhibit 20, it is clear that contrary to what he had said in paragraph 9 of his witness statement, the purchaser of those shares is the Beige Group and not the Beige Bank.
“That is correct. I suppose there was a typographical error in the statement, it should have read ‘Beige Group’, ASP Atsah, the Investigator answered.
When it was put to him by Mr Sory that, “contrary to what you say in paragraph 11 of your witness statement, the signatories to the FASL account were representatives of the two parties stated in Exhibit 20 who are the First Africa Group (FAG) and the Beige Group and not the Beige Bank,”
The Witness in his response agreed, before explaining that, “I can recall that Counsel said that the Beige Bank is part of the Beige Group.”
Mr Sory again put to him that, the Beige Bank and the Beige Group are different, the Witness also agreed with Counsel, saying, “That is correct.”
Asked by Mr Sory if he had made any findings on Exhibit 20 as part of his investigation on the management of FASL, the Witness instead offered an explanation.
“My lady because of the share purchase agreement, Beige Group had sent its representatives to work with FASL so the representatives had the opportunity to work with FASL as a result of the share purchase agreement,” the Investigator noted.
I’m not aware of Agreement details
Counsel for the accused had put to the Investigator that, “by that Share Purchase Agreement, there were three crucial dates in the Share Purchase Agreement, there was the commencement date, the transitional period and a cut-off date.”
But, the Witness in his response said, “My lady I do not know how counsel segregated it but all I know is that there was a share purchase agreement between FAG and the Beige Group.”
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