Accountant hauled to court for allegedly falsifying GRA receipts

A 34-year-old Michael Sumnaya Adedina, an accountant with Medeena Consult Limited, is said to have acquired a mining concession, a Toyota Hilux Pick-Up, a Lexus SUV vehicle, and a 4-bedroom house within a space of two years through ill-gotten wealth.

Michael allegedly managed to acquire these properties by forging 39 Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) official payment receipts for BMG Infrastructure Limited.

This act is said to have caused the Republic of Ghana to lose revenue to the tune of GH¢2,495,778.00.

Michael was, therefore, charged with forgery of official documents, stealing, fraudulent breach of trust, making false or misleading statements, and unauthorized attempts to collect tax.

The accountant pleaded not guilty to the charges, although his lawyer told the Accra Circuit Court that the accused had handed over the vehicles to the complainant, Deniz Cetir, the country manager for BMG Infrastructure Company.

He was also slapped with two other counts: unauthorized collection of tax and impeding tax administration, but the presiding judge, Mrs. Afia Owusua Appiah, struck them out on the basis that they were not supported by the facts of the case.

Michael has been remanded into police custody to reappear before the court on February 17, 2024.

On Thursday, December 4, 2024, the prosecuting officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Evans Kesse, read the facts of the case to the court.

He said the complainant’s firm is a foreign company registered with the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) in 2021, and it is located in Tarkwa in the Western Region.

DSP Kesse added that it is into mining waste processing, and after setting up the company, the accused approached the complainant and introduced himself as a professional accountant who could prepare all their accounting bookings and represent their interests professionally.

According to him, the company outsourced the services of the accused in all matters relating to accounting, including statutory payments and the preparation of various tax types with the Ghana Revenue Authority and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust for its employees.

Since his appointment in the year 2021, the accused has prepared and collected money from the complainant at the end of every month, ostensibly to pay for the various tax liabilities.

After each payment, the accused furnished the complainant with official receipts purportedly from the Ghana Revenue Authority as proof of payment.

On May 31, 2023, the Ghana Revenue Authority conducted a tax audit into the activities of BMG Infrastructure Limited and detected a tax liability of GH¢2,495,778.00 against the company, which raised suspicion.

Consequently, the company launched an investigation into the cause of the huge liability.

It was gathered that the accused failed to pay all the tax revenue he collected over the period to GRA.

A report was made to the GRA through GIPC with the corresponding receipts for verification, and it was realized that the accused had been forging the authority’s official receipts.

Following this worrying development, an official complaint was made on December 29, 2023, to the investigation wing of GRA, and the person was arrested for investigation.

During interrogation, the accused admitted the offense in his cautioned statement to the police, stating that he downloaded the GRA payment receipts, edited them, inserted the tax figures, and presented the forged receipts to the complainant.

He disclosed that he used part of the money to buy concessions for mining purposes, but the deal went bad.

Additionally, the accused also bought a Toyota Hilux pickup at the cost of GH¢650, 000.00, a Lexus SUB vehicle at the cost of GH¢550, 000.00, and put up a 4-bedroom self-contained house at Tarkwa Aboso.

The prosecutor added that the investigation is still ongoing to identify these assertions for further action.