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In a new application to a High Court in Accra, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) requested confirmation of the seizure of certain funds it had earlier taken from the home of censured former sanitation minister Cecilia Dapaah and an order to freeze several bank accounts.
In an 8-page court filing from September 19 that was quoted by numerous local media portals, the OSP details a number of discoveries it had made in relation to the seized monies, which total around US$590,000 and more than GH2.8 million in cash.
The embattled minister’s several accounts were also stopped, containing various sums in both local and foreign currency.
The OSP has provided a number of fresh details as part of its argument in the seizure and freezing action, which the court rejected a few weeks ago.
GhanaWeb examines five significant bombshell revelations made by the OSP.
Using a pseudonym, Cecilia Dapaah enters the real estate industry
The OSP shed light on a number of enterprises the former minister is said to have been involved with, businesses it claimed she exploited as part of her defense regarding the source of some of the funds in her residence. “The OSP’s criminal intelligence further suggested that the first respondent, as a Minister of State, was engaged in an undisclosed and undeclared real estate business in which she cleverly received the proceeds of the transactions in her bank accounts and investments while obscuring and concealing the transactions by employing the use of aliases to avoid detection of the actual ownership of the business and properties.”
The document also revealed that “criminal intelligence suggested that the first respondent had unexplained large cash sums of money (far above her income as a Minister of State) secreted and stashed up in her residence; and that her house-helps had allegedly helped themselves to part of said sums of money through larceny.”
No concrete source of funds allegedly stolen from her home:
Relating the findings to the original case where her two househelps are said to have stolen a million dollars, and hundreds of thousands of monies in euros and Ghana cedis; the OSP said there was no evidence of the source of the stolen funds.
There are no financial records or indications of the source(s) of the money that was allegedly taken from the respondents’ home and found there by the OSP.
“Furthermore, there is no proof that the money amounts were obtained from any lawful enterprises, professions, or vocations, nor is there proof that they were dutifully declared and subject to any required payments.
“The first respondent denied knowing about the presence of the stated cash sums in the home during the search that was done in her presence. The first respondent’s actions raised the suspicions of the authorized officials of the OSP that the cash quantities were tainted property because he was a public officer.
How money reportedly was hidden
The OSP informed the court that during the search of her Abelemkpe home on July 24, 2023, cash amounts totaling $590,000 and 2,862,007 were found.
Additional searches were carried out in the ousted minister’s two other homes in Tesano and Cantonments, both in Accra.
The money was deftly buried and hidden in secret locations throughout the home, some of which had names and descriptions, in wraps, polythene bags, garments, and 32 envelopes.
Brother who passed away was funding the minister.
The former minister is known to have told the OSP after the one million dollar suspected theft that 800,000 of the money belonged to her deceased brother.
The OSP said the dead brother’s account was as recent as May 2023 still sending monies to Ms. Dapaah’s account, which has been frozen as of now.
“Analysis of the statements in the first respondent’s (Cecilia Dapaah) bank account revealed highly suspicious transactions involving the name of the first respondent’s deceased brother – Nana Akwasi Essan.
“The said Nana Akwasi Essan died in January 2022 and there is no record domiciled at the financial institutions of probate or letters of administration granted to personal representatives). Strangely, there are active transfers from the deceased person’s bank account to that of the first respondent’s account,” parts of the documents filed is quoted by myjoyonline.com.
It added that “as recently as September 19, 2022, and May 23, amounts of ¢10,450 and ¢11,280 respectively were transferred, supposedly by the deceased brother to the first respondent (Cecilia Dapaah).”
By US$590,000, Cecilia Dapaah reduces one million stolen.
According to Cecilia Dapaah’s allegations to the OSP, less money was reportedly stolen by her housekeepers last year.
According to the original investigation and court documents filed against the home, one million dollars, as well as tens of thousands of euros and Ghana cedis, were stolen from her Abelemkpe home.
According to the OSP’s court filing, the minister has lowered the amount by US$590,000, which was found at the same location in July during a search by the OSP that was done in her presence at the facility.
She claimed that the $590,000 that the OSP discovered was a portion of the $1 million that the eight defendants who are currently on trial for theft are alleged to have taken.
During the search, the OSP discovered the monetary amount and GH2.8 million in cash.
On August 21, the court ordered the OSP to unfreeze the former minister’s accounts and return her property; the office obliged and refroze them before submitting the present application.
The date of the hearing is set on October 18, 2023.
Source:Radiooneghana.com
