Husband and wife, both shareholders of Onango Ghana Limited, allegedly told the police that they took USD650, 000 of the company of which they had administrative control of all its online IT systems
Mr Samuel Kwabena Opoku, and his accomplice,Mrs Juliana Sherri-Opoku, allegedly said they had falsely informed the Ghana Revenue Authority that the company had stopped operating and needed time to pay off the monies owed in taxes.
A statement, they knew was false, after they were charged with defrauding by false pretense and stealing.
They were charged for conspiracy to commit crime, forgery of official document and altering forged document for which MrOpoku pleaded not guilty to.
The two had a dual nationality of Ghana and the United Kingdom and both directors and shareholders of Onango Ghana Limited.
The circuit court presided over by Mr Emmanuel Essandoh, admitted MrOpoku, who is also the Managing Director (MD) of the company, to GH¢10.5million bail with one surety.The court ordered that the surety should be a public servant earning not less than GH¢3,000.00.
Meanwhile, his accomplice, MsSherri-Opoku’s plea was not taken because she was not present in court, and shewas expected to reappear on July 4, 2022.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Emmanuel Nyamekye, prosecuting, said the complainant, Charles Addo, was MD of Meridian Management Investments Limited and a Chairman of Onango Ghana Limited.
ASP Nyamekye saidaccused were the MD and Executive Director in charge of Finance respectively, of the company.
The court heard that in 2017, accused approached the complainant, and in 2018, Lendable Asset Management LLC, a financial institution incorporated in the United States and introduced Onango Ghana Limited to them, asking them to invest and lend money to the said company.
Prosecution said accused presented Lendable Asset Management LLC with documents, including financial statement and computerised dashboard, which they claimed represented customers and financial position of the company in an Online Virtual Account (OVA), which they said was held with MTN mobile money services.
ASP Nyamekyetold the court that the dashboard was forged with false figures of balances and customers of the company, to induce Meridian Management and Investment Limited and Lendable Asset Management LLC into investing and lending.
Prosecution said the dashboard displayed fake transactions, fake numbers of customers and fake account balances of Onango Ghana Limited.
This information attracted Meridian Management Investment Limited, acting through the complainant and Lendable Asset Management LLC to invest and lend a total amount of USD13.2 million, according to ASP Nyamekye.
He said accused were not able to account for the money they receive, and continued to present false information about the company to the investors via false weekly status updates, which accused directed Mr Melvin Neizer and Mr Dominic Sarfo to present to the investors relishes Ghana Premier League test
Prosecution said after the complainant had received a formal written complaint from Lendable Asset Management LLC, concerning the refusal by accused to allow Lendable Asset Management LLC to gain access to the OVA for audit, investigation was conducted. -GNA
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