Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Abednego Atsah, the investigator in the ongoing trial where Michael Nyinaku, the founder of the defunct Beige Bank is standing trial has told the High Court in Accra that, his investigation did not reveal that the accused in person, received or stole any monies as per counts one to nine of the charges levelled against him.

ASP Atuah, the 5th Prosecution Witness (PW5) said, “it is correct” that throughout his investigation, he did not find anything showing that the accused person was ever paid monies directly as per the records made available to him during the investigations.

The Investigator made this known to the Financial and Economic Division of the Accra High Court presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, a Justice of the Court of Appeal sitting as an additional High Court judge, during further cross-examination on July 28, August 1st and August 2nd 2023 respectively by defence lawyers led by Lawyer Thaddeus Sory.

Of the 43 charges that have been levelled against the accused, nine bother on stealing, 25 on fraudulent breach of trust and another nine bother on money laundering.


He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

ASP Joseph Atsah, admitted that, in all the nine charges which bother on stealing not a pesewa of the funds in question were found to have been disbursed to the accused in his personal capacity and neither was any evidence found that the accused benefitted directly from those funds.

However, in the view of ASP Atsah, the charges of stealing were preferred against the accused based simply on the fact that he was known as a shareholder or director to all the companies to whom funds were advanced.

In his Evidence-in-Chief as contained in his witness statement that has been adopted by the Court presided over by Justice Asare-Botwe, a Justice of the Court of Appeal sitting as an additional High Court judge, his testimony is expected to corroborate the Prosecution’s charges that have been leveled against Mr. Michael Nyineku.

Highlights of Cross Examination on Count 1

“Throughout all your investigations, did you find out if any of the funds transferred to Alberry (a company of which the accused is a Director) was ever paid to the accused person directly?” Lawyer Sory asked the Investigator.

In his response, ASP Atsah, said “No my lady, there was no record or evidence of any funds being disbursed to the accused in his personal capacity however our investigations revealed that the accused was a shareholder of Alberry Ltd, the entity that received the funds.

When counsel put to the Witness that “the accused person never stole any funds belonging to the Beige Bank because the funds in question were funds belonging to Alberry Company, having received same from another owner of the funds called FASL(First Africa Savings and Loans).

The investigator in his response said, “It is correct,” adding that, “The funds came from FASL to Alberry.”

It was the case of Mr Sorry that, under Count One of the charge sheet, the accused is alleged to have stolen an amount of GH¢5,240,000 described as the property of the Beige Bank which he (accused) caused it to be transferred to a related company called Alberry Company Limited.

Counsel again recounted that, in the course of the proceedings, PW1 (First Prosecution Witness) tendered in evidence “Exhibit L” to show how the funds were transferred to Alberry.

While making reference to “Exhibit L,” which contained (a series and a request for transfer of funds dated April 26, 2018 with an attached memo and another request dated May 11, 2018 also with an attached memo and May 15, 2018 also with an attached memo, Counsel asked the Witness if he found them?

In all of the above, the Witness answered in the affirmative.

It was the case of Counsel that “Exhibit L”series confirm that there was a request to transfer 2 Million Ghana Cedis, One million Ghana Cedis and GH¢2,240,000 to Alberry Company.

Counsel again said, If the Witness looked at the total of these sum, “that is what equals Five Million, Two Hundred and Forty thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢5,240,000) which is a subject of Count One.”

The Witness in his answer said counsel assertions were correct.

Asked if it was correct that all of the requests and the memos were duly signed by the officers whose signatures appear in them, the Witness said, “that is correct in respect of the account that was being investigated.”

Mr Sory again while putting it to the Witness said, “if one is a director or shareholder of a company, it does not mean monies paid to that company on account of transactions it has had with a third party can be said to have been stolen by a director or shareholder of that recipient company.

ASP Atsah, in his response said, “Per the assertion of counsel, that is correct.”

After first of all establishing evidence through the witness that the funds that went to Alberry Ltd came directly from FASL and not the bank as was being alleged by the prosecution, defence counsel Thaddeus Sory established further evidence through cross-examination on how Alberry Ltd utilised the funds that it received from FASL.

Through that further trend of cross-examination counsel proved and the witness also admitted that the records of how funds were utilized by Alberry Ltd confirm that the funds were utilized for the same purpose outlined in the memos that accompanied the initial request for funds whilst all disbursements by Alberry were made to third parties for services Alberry procured from them.

And again in all of those instances, the witness confirmed that from a review of the bank statements of Alberry Ltd together with the underlying payment vouchers the support the entries on the bank statements, there was no evidence that any payment of funds was ever made by Alberry to the accused.

Source: citifmonline