Afenyi-Dadzie told police she didn’t know her husband received $1.5m from Beige Group - Report

A report on the ongoing court case between Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie's First Africa Savings and Loans (FASL) and The Beige Group has stated how the former contradicted herself with the accounts she gave to the police as well as the Receiver of Banks.

According to details of an earlier report published by starrfm.com.gh, Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie, who was the MD of FASL, told the police that she was not aware her husband, Kwesi Tetteh Dadzie, had received an amount of $1.5m as part payment

The case came about following the collapse of the Beige Bank, during the banking sector cleanup of 2019.

According to details shared by the news portal, what Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie told the police with respect to the amount her husband was paid appears to have been incorrect, bearing in mind that she was part of the agreement that brought in The Beige Group as FASL’s majority shareholder.

The report added that sometime in July 2017, Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie approached Mike Nyinaku, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to discuss the state of affairs of FASL. At the time, FASL was encountering severe liquidity challenges as it was unable to meet the demands of its depositors, and Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie thus requested financial support from Michael Nyinaku.

“Thinking this was a temporary challenge and on the basis of the fact that Mike held her as a godmother, he gave her an amount of GHS200,000 (Two Billion old Cedis ) as a gift to augment her needs. Within a week of having given her the initial sum of GHS200,000 as a gift, Mrs. Afenyi Dadzie, approached Mike Nyinaku again requesting for more financial support for FASL.

“She explained that FASL had been given notice by the BoG that they were at risk of having their license revoked as a result of a continuous decline in their capital adequacy position. In principle, the company was in dire need of new capital injection far in excess of the initial amount gifted by Mike Nyinaku to GAD. Sensing that this could be a recurrent issue and considering his experience in the industry, Mike decided to make things more formal this time. Mike thus caused TBG to advance to First Africa Group, a loan of GHS200,000. This transaction was executed via a check dated August 8, 2017,” the report indicated.

The report further indicated that the two parties decided that, as a way of permanently solving the problem of FASL, First Africa Group should offload 90% of its interest to TBG at a value of USD 2.5M.

One thing led to another, and the agreement went through, with an initial payment of $1.5m paid to FASL in fulfilment of Clause 4.1 of the share purchase agreement, which stated that upon the payment of USD1,500,000 of the purchase consideration, TBG would assume full control of FASL.

In effect, on September 4, 2017, TBG made two instalment payments to FAG, all amounting to GHS7M (USD1,589,684 in USD equivalent at the time), with the first payment (GHS5M or $1,136,519) made on September 5, 2017, and the second (GHS2M or $453,165) made on September 15, 2017.

The report added that with this fulfilment, as of September 15, 2017, TBG had satisfied the key condition stated in the agreement, which will afford it the right to assume full control of FASL.

With that, TBG moved in with Vanessa Atsu, representing the new shareholders, stationed at the head office of FASL as the Responsibility Officer.

Vanessa Atsu’s responsibility, the report added, was to oversee the entire transition of FASL into a fully-fledged subsidiary of The BEIGE Group.

Banking sector cleanup and the events that happened thereafter:

On August 1 2018 when the BEIGE Bank was taken over, the Receiver of Banks directed that all bank accounts of companies relating to TBG be frozen. Consequently, all accounts of TBG and its subsidiaries, including FASL, were frozen.

Eventually, some of the subsidiaries petitioned the Receiver to have their accounts un-frozen as there were no official reasons warranting such action, but these requests were not heeded.

As a way of getting her accounts un-frozen, Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie and another individual named Kwabena Osei Bonsu, then a manager at FASL, are reported to have engaged the Receiver of the BEIGE Bank to discuss the affairs of FASL with The BEIGE Bank.

“Kwabena Osei Bonsu in his statement to the Police indicated that the purpose for which he and GAD engaged the Receiver was for them to enquire about the status of the bank accounts of FASL held with the Beige bank. That meeting was held on August 15, 2018. It turns out that no official of The BEIGE Group – the then majority shareholders of FASL was informed about or invited to be in attendance at this meeting.

“It has further emerged that during that meeting, Mrs Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie and Kwabena Osei Bonsu presented themselves as officials of FASL to the exclusion of the representatives of The BEIGE Group who were the majority shareholders of FASL at the time. What was striking was that Vanessa Atsu, who had served as the representative of The BEIGE Group at FASL and the substantive person managing all the affairs of FASL was not invited to this meeting or even mentioned at the meeting by GAD and Kwabena Osei Bonsu,” the report added.

Also, it emerged that Afenyi-Dadzie told the Receiver at that meeting that TBG had only “expressed the intention to invest in FASL and consequently made a deposit for shares of GHS9M but the process was yet to be completed,” without the mention that prior to the investment of GHS9M into the company by BEIGE, an amount of GHS7M had already been paid by BEIGE to FAG, the outgoing shareholders to secure the shares that were being purchased.

The Receiver of the BEIGE Bank referred the case to the police Commercial Crime Unit (CCU) of the CID, following which an investigation was commenced into the matter.

The report indicated that during her appearance before the police, Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie reiterated the same information she had earlier presented to the Receiver, excluding the fact that the shares had actually been part-paid for directly to FAG and that full control of FASL had passed on to The BEIGE Group as per the terms of the share purchase agreement.

“What is not known is whether she provided a copy of the share purchase agreement to the police or not however, what is known without a shred of doubt is that she did not disclose that First Africa Group – the company of which Kwesi Tetteh Dadzie, her husband was the Managing Director – had received and acknowledged payment of an amount of GHS7M being part payment for the share purchase consideration agreed upon between the two parties.

“Secondly, the CID invited Mike Nyinaku. In a statement issued to the Police dated September 12, 2018, Mike Nyinaku narrated the entire story about how the acquisition happened, the purchase consideration of GHS7M paid, the additional capital injection of GHS9M made into the company, the appointment of BEIGE officials to manage the company, amongst others and supported all these with the relevant supporting documentation including a copy of the share purchase agreement,” the report added.

After Mike Nyinaku also appeared before the police, where he showed supporting documentation on the agreement between BEIGE and FASL, contrary to what GAD had told them on August 27, 2018, the police decided to confront her with the side of the story of the former.

“Thus, in a supplementary statement offered by Mrs. Gifty Afenyi Dadzie to the Police on September 25, 2018, she admitted that ‘After consulting her boss, he confirmed that the cedi equivalent of USD1.5M had been paid by BEIGE to First Africa Group as part payment of the purchase consideration of USD 2.5M agreed,’” it added.

Meanwhile, while under cross-examination by Thaddeus Sory, counsel for Mike Nyinaku in the on-going trial, Kwabena Bonsu (4th prosecution witness), who was a manager at FASL at the time, maintained that he was not aware of the existence of a share purchase agreement between First Africa Group and The BEIGE Group.

Source: Ghanaweb