Former CEO of Beige Bank granted GH¢200m bail over money laundering, theft charges

The Accra High Court presided over by Justice Afia Asare Botwe has granted bail in the sum of GH¢200 million to the former CEO of Beige Bank, Michael Nyinaku. 

Mr. Michael Nyinaku has been charged with 44 counts of money laundering, fraudulent breach of trust, and stealing depositors’ money, following a suit filed by the Attorney General’s Office on November 2, 2022.

According to the AG, a number of suspicious and unusual transactions were discovered when the bank went into receivership after its license was revoked by the Bank of Ghana in 2018.

The unusual transactions were subsequently reported to law enforcement agencies for investigations and same revealed that between 2015 and 2018, Nyinaku, who was then the CEO of Beige Bank had allegedly used various means to transfer huge sums of money to companies related to him and for his personal benefit.

The AG contends that between 2017 and 2018, the accused had caused the transfer of 10,071 fixed deposit accounts held by Beige Bank in, which various customers had placed a total of GH¢448,636,210, to Beige Capital Asset Management Limited (BCAM) without the knowledge and consent of the customers.

Again, the accused is alleged to have between 2017 and 2018, caused the transfer of 35 fixed deposit investments of 23 customers of Beige Bank totaling GH¢141,042,348 to the Beige Group, a company owned by the accused, the majority shareholder of the Beige Bank.

“Investigations also revealed that sometime in March 2018, the accused had caused a “fictitious” second account to be opened in the name of First Africa Savings and Loans (FASL) on an existing account holder with Beige Bank without the knowledge of the board and management of FASL.”

The suit by the AG also alleges that the accused then caused the transfer of the sum of GH¢320 million from the accounts of various Beige Bank customers into the account of BCAM held with Beige Bank.

It said the GH¢320 million was subsequently transferred from BCAM account held at Beige Bank into the “fictitious” FASL account that had been opened in Beige Bank books on the instructions of the accused person allegedly.

The AG further maintains that between March 2018 and August 2018,  GH¢21,123,270.96 out of the said GH¢320 million was transferred from a “fictitious” FASL bank account to two individuals and 10 companies, nine of which were related to the accused, on the instructions of the accused.

The suit said again, between 2015 and 2017, the accused through the use of payment vouchers, allegedly caused the sum of GH¢1,465,000 of depositors' funds lodged with Beige Bank to be paid to himself and other persons.

But Mr Nyinaku has denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty in court on Tuesday. 

His lawyer, Addo Attuah also told the court the said transactions were a reflection of regular recorded bank transactions. 

The AG’s office is expected to file all disclosures to be used in the case by December 9, 2022, and thus the case was adjourned to December 22, 2022.