4 more suspects said to have conspired with bank worker to steal GH¢1.2million shows up in court

Four more suspects said to have conspired with a bank worker to allegedly steal GH¢1.2 million from customers’ accounts showed up at an Accra Circuit Court today.

The four, Nicholas Nii Sai, Nana Kwesi Gyimah, Joseph  Anim and Othniel Amankwah Darkwah had been mentioned in court at the previous sitting as suspects in the case and the police were looking for them.

They showed up in court today but their pleas were not taken.

They have however been granted bail to re-appear in court on June 29, 2023.

The case investigators are still looking into the case.

This brings the total number of accomplices, who have so far reported to the police to 12.

4 more suspects on the run

The case investigators are currently pursuing four other suspects in relation to the case.

They are Kwame Owusu Boadu, Daniel Osei, Boadu Nana Yaw Adjei and Clinton Asamoah.

They are alleged to have conspired with Emmanuel Sakyi Afriyie, the lead accused person and a former worker of the bank to steal the over GH¢1.2 million from the bank’s customers account without their consent.

Afriyie was first put before the court presided over by Ellen Ofei-Ayeh on June 14, 2023 alongside the eight other accomplices in relation to the case.

The suspects who earlier showed up in court are Cecil Nyamesem Agyarkwa, Richard Aikins, Michael Tweneboah Oppong, Fouad Mohammed, Caleb Bandoh, Benjamin Adoari, Ernest Aryee and Isaac de-Heer.

Related article: Bank worker arrested for stealing more than GH¢1.2million from customers' accounts

Emmanuel Sakyi Afriyie, aged 25, who allegedly withdrew moneys from the customers’ account, is said to have used their user identity and passwords to undertake the alleged act without the customers’ consent.

The customers’ accounts he allegedly stole from included that of a former Inspector General of Police and a judge, all of whom are deceased.

According to state prosecutors, Afriyie sent the moneys withdrawn from customers’ accounts to the accounts of his alleged accomplices.

Afriyie has been charged with the other accomplices on the charge of conspiracy.

Additionally, Afriyie has been charged with 12 counts of stealing.

He is currently on remand and all the accomplices have been granted bail.

Pleas reserved

The pleas of the four new suspects who showed up in court on Monday (June 26, 2023) were not taken, reports Graphic Online's Elizabeth Konadu-Boakye, who was in court.

That was after the prosecution, led by Chief Inspector Isaac Amankwah, had told the Court that it needed more time to modify the charge sheet.

They are to re-appear on Thursday, June 29, 2023.

Coding course

The facts of the case as read in court by the prosecutor were that, the lead suspect Afriyie who was a contract worker of the bank somewhere in February 2023, registered for an online coding course, which the renewable annual subscription fee was $174.30, equivalent to GH¢2,287.69.

Instead of paying for the course out of his own pocket, the prosecutor said Afriyie rather made the payment on one of the bank’s customer’s Visa card on February 6, 2023.

"As a result, the complainant and the Fraud team of the bank were gathering evidence on the matter to engage the accused, but he made a swift move to tender in his resignation letter, effective May 31, 2023," Chief Inspector Amankwah said.

The Prosecutor added that the sudden resignation and the alleged illegal transaction on the customer’s visa card by the accused person made the bank officials more suspicious to investigate him in other areas.

"The complainant, together with the fraud team, made up of the bank’s IT experts, detected that on April 20, 2023 the accused by his own machination accessed one of his colleague’s User ID and password to change the contact number on another customer’s accounts," he added.

Transfer

He added that on April 21, 2023 the accused personally set up an internet and mobile banking access on the same customer’s account, using his own User ID and password, after which he had access and started operating on the account without the victim customer receiving an SMS alert.

"Therefore, from April 21 to May 12, 2023, the accused with full access to the said account, fraudulently transferred a total of GH¢945,133.00 including charges from the accounts to a number of people," he said.

Chief Inspector Amankwah revealed that the accused transferred GH¢90,000.00 to a girlfriend of another accused person, GH¢180,000.00 to another’s account; GH¢30,000.00 together with other transfers in tranches of GH¢30,000.00 on different dates within the said period to other accused persons accounts in different banks.

On May 9, 2023 from 7:21am to 7:32am, the accused further used another colleague and that of the branch Manager’s Users IDs to change and authorise the contact numbers of eleven customers’ accounts, including the account of the deceased judge and the former IGP, who is also deceased and other customers and replaced them with only one contact phone number.

The prosecutor told the court that the accused used eleven minutes to complete these processes, after which he used his own User ID to set up online and mobile banking for these accounts on May 10, 2023.

Arrest

On May 11, 2023 he transferred tranches of GH¢50,000.00 to other accounts and repeated that the next day.

"From those transfers, the receivers stated in their respective investigation cautioned statements that the accused came to their shops to purchase Iphone 14 Pro Max and requested for their bank accounts details and forwarded the same to him to effect those transfers into their accounts," he added.

Again on May 15, 2023, the prosecutor said the complainant on behalf of the bank petitioned the Director General of CID in respect of GH¢1,207,017.00 theft detected in furtherance to the Visa Card case but failed to report to the police.

On June 4, 2023, the accused together with his girlfriend, who stood as surety for him attempted to escape from the jurisdiction to Dubai, but he was arrested at the Kotoka International Airport by the Ghana Immigration Service and handed over to the police.