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Business news for Wednesday, September 2, 2020
Source: Class FM
2020-09-02
Daniel Duku, former CEO of the Venture Capital Trust Fund
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The former CEO of the Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF), Mr. Daniel Duku, who, along with five other former members of the Fund’s management, has been tried for causing a financial loss of GH ¢ 42.8 million to state, so Until now, GH ¢ 1,145,000 has been reimbursed to the Fund.
This was revealed to the Public Accounts Committee by the current CEO of the Fund, Yaw Owusu Berempong, on Wednesday, September 2, 2020.
Duku and two others, Irene Anti Mensah and her husband Frank Aboagye Mensah, chose to refund some of the money during the trial and therefore pleaded guilty under Section 35 of the Courts Act, which allows them to negotiate with the state. restitution. and compensation.
The couple has reimbursed, respectively, GH ¢ 500,000 from GH ¢ 1.5 million; and GH ¢ 170,000 out of GH ¢ 1.1 million, Berempong said at the hearing.
Berempong said that between 2011 and 2015, 2005 loans were made to some companies and about 90 percent of those loans, “I could say, were processed and disbursed fraudulently.”
He said the current administration of the Fund and its Board of Directors have done a “good job” in finding the lost funds.
“We refer those issued to EOCO and BNI. The total amount involved, in terms of capital, was GH ¢ 14.7 million and interest had accrued on these loans for an amount of GH ¢ 42 million ”, he said.
“For more than two years, we worked with both EOCO and BNI and the matter finally reached the courts,” he noted.
“Six people were charged: Daniel Duku, former CEO; Richard Lassey, Former Board Member and Former Keta MP (2008-2012); Irene Anti Mensah, personal assistant to the CEO, who later became an investment officer; Frank Aboagye Mensah, who happens to be the husband of Irene Anti Mensah; Charity Opoku, the accountant, and Kofi Sarpong, who was also an investment officer, ”recalled Mr. Berempong.
The CEO continued: “Two months ago, three of the six: Daniel Duku, Irene Anti Mensah and the husband, Frank Aboagye Mensah, decided to submit to Section 35 of the Law on Courts, Law 459, which I understand allows them to negotiate a settlement and compensation with the attorney general and then plead guilty in court and the only thing that can be avoided under Section 35 is a prison sentence.
“So all three pleaded guilty. Daniel Duku has been asked to pay GH ¢ 15 million to Venture Capital, Irene Anti Mensah – GH ¢ 1.5 million; Frank Aboagye Mensah – GH ¢ 1.1 million; the three for GH ¢ 17.69 million ”, he said.
The three, he said, were given three months to reimburse the money, noting that if they did not do so, he would force the prosecutor to take them back to court and “they will be sentenced because they have already pleaded guilty.”
The other three suspects, the executive director noted, “will appear in court in October 2020.”
“And, as I speak, Daniel Duku has already paid or reimbursed GH ¢ 1,145,000 to Venture Capital, Irene Anti Mensah has reimbursed GH ¢ 500,000 of the GH ¢ 1.5 million and then Frank Aboagye Mensah has reimbursed GH ¢ 170,000 of the GHS1 .1 million”.
“So, during the last two months, the total amount we have received is GH ¢ 1,805,000.”
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