Court remands five over counterfeit cash operation
The accused—Shubham Sharma, James Mozu Bonaparte, Prince Owusu Ahenkorah, Jonathan Kwame Appiah, and Solomon Adjetey Adjei—were hauled before the Accra Circuit Court last Friday.
Five individuals have been arrested in Accra for allegedly running a counterfeiting operation that produced fake GH¢200 and $100 notes, with the total fake currency discovered amounting to GH¢2.3 million and $191,900.
The accused—Shubham Sharma, James Mozu Bonaparte, Prince Owusu Ahenkorah, Jonathan Kwame Appiah, and Solomon Adjetey Adjei—were hauled before the Accra Circuit Court last Friday. They face charges ranging from conspiracy and possession of counterfeit currency to the distribution of forged notes.
The group was picked up from different parts of Accra following an intelligence-led police operation on June 16, 2025. The lead prosecutor, Chief Inspector Wisdom Alorwu, requested their continued detention while investigations proceed. The court, presided over by Samuel Bright Acquah, remanded all five into custody until their next appearance on July 3.
Sources familiar with the case say the arrest followed a tip-off from a local businessman, whose identity is being protected. According to police findings, the alleged ringleader, Shubham Sharma, stole $230,000 in cash from the businessman’s safe and replaced it with counterfeit dollars and Ghana cedis.
A subsequent search of the company’s cash office at Adabrakah led police to a stash of fake currency—GH¢2.3 million in GH¢200 notes and nearly $192,000 in $100 bills. Sharma is said to have confessed to keeping the fake notes there.
Investigations revealed that Sharma allegedly paid graphic designer Bonaparte GH¢25,000 for the fake cedis and GH¢15,000 for the dollars. Further inquiries uncovered a broader conspiracy involving Ahenkorah, a photographer, who reportedly worked with Appiah, the manager of the printing press that produced the notes. Appiah, in turn, implicated Adjei as the one who physically handed the fake money to Ahenkorah.
The police have since retrieved multiple bundles of the forged currency and continue to probe the network behind what appears to be a well-organized counterfeiting operation.
