The eighth defence witness in the ongoing trial of the founder of Beige Bank, Michael Nyinaku, has stated, "None of the 10,000 plus customers is on record as having rejected the investment certificate issued to them following the purported unauthorized movement of funds from their accounts, which raises significant doubt about the substance of the allegation."

The witness also added that allegations claiming funds were moved from these "customer accounts at the instructions of the accused, without the consent of the affected customers, are untrue."

Seth Adu-Afram, former Branch Chief Executive of the UTC and Kwashieman branches during periods of Beige Bank, explained that none of them "is on record as having lodged a complaint at the time the funds were moved from their account, which raises significant doubt about the substance of the allegation."

The prosecution has claimed that Michael Nyinaku, the CEO of the defunct bank, siphoned customers' funds without their knowledge.

However, Seth Adu-Afram, like previous defence witnesses, said the allegations are "untrue" because, as branch executives and relationship officers, they had aligned these customers.

While presenting his witness statement as his evidence-in-chief after its adoption by the High Court in Accra, presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, the witness, who is also a banker and a financial analyst by profession, said all the customers were engaged.

Mr. Seth Adu-Afram, who is currently engaged in general trading, food, and catering services, also told the court that none of these customers is on record as having rejected the investment certificate issued to them.

"Finally, that none of the 10,000 plus customers is on record as having rejected the investment certificate issued to them following the purported unauthorized movement of funds from their account raises significant doubt about the substance of the allegation. It is on these bases that I conclude that the allegation that the funds were moved from customers' accounts at the instructions of the accused, without the consent of the affected customers, is untrue," he told the court.

Mr. Nyinaku, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the defunct bank, has been charged with allegedly stealing GH¢2.1 billion of depositors' money from the bank. He has since pleaded not guilty to 43 charges, including stealing, fraudulent breach of trust, and money laundering, and has been granted bail.

Customers consent

The former BCE, while providing the basis for his assertions, told the court that, to the best of his knowledge and memory, "all of these clients knew that their FDs were with BCAM because, as I have already noted, they would have been engaged by their respective ROs (Relationship Officers) about the change in the bank's interest rates, and they would also have signed IFs (investment forms) authorizing the movement of funds from their current accounts to BCAM because—as per standard banking procedures—they are the only ones with the capacity and mandate to authorize such movements."

To buttress his point, he said, "I do not recall it ever being mentioned at any of our weekly or monthly business review meetings that customers of UTC or any other branch for that matter did not know where their funds had been placed or that any customers had complained of unauthorized debits to their account."

It was his case to the court that a lot of the customers that "I knew of as being customers of the UTC branch, there were many of them that I was still personally managing even after I had been transferred to Kwashieman."

Justification

For example, he said, "all of these six customers listed in the table above, among many others that I personally managed, knew that their investments were with BCAM. I say this because I dealt with them personally and, as has already been confirmed by Mr. Julius Ayivor, they all had certificates of investments issued by BCAM, which I personally delivered to them," he stated.

"I also identified over 200 individuals and entities who were customers of the Kwashieman branch, which was the branch I was managing up until the bank was put under receivership," he stated.

The witness said it is impracticable in banking practice for anyone who is not a signatory to an account to cause funds to be moved from that account.

"As a branch manager of the bank for a period long before it was put under receivership, I am very familiar with the internal processes of the bank as well as the happenings within the bank, which includes branch management and banking operations," he stated.

Find attached full Witness Statement of 8th Defence Witness: