Ghana’s Financial Intelligence Centre records 206 ‘fishy’ deals worth $6m in two years

The Ghana Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) has disclosed that since the start of its operations January 4, 2010, it has received a total of 206 suspicious transaction reports (STRs) worth $6 million.

Out of the total number of STRs, 85 have been disseminated to the appropriate law enforcement agencies as intelligence, according to the Centre which was set up by government in accordance with Section 4 of Act 749.

“…in these two years of FIC’s operations, it has received a total of 206 Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) out of which 85 were disseminated to appropriate authorities as intelligence,” said Mr Thompson Essel, acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the FIC when the Bank of Ghana (BoG) launched the guidelines on Anti-Money Laundering and the Combating of the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) in Accra January 4, 2012.

Later in an interview with the press, Mr Essel estimates that the 206 transaction reports the centre received were worth $6 million.

These transactions are said to be mostly money laundered.

According to him, the FIC was able to gather all these intelligence due to the collaboration it has with some local key stakeholders as well as its international counterparts.

The Centre is an administrative one and not a law enforcer. It sends intelligence reports to law enforcement agencies to conduct further investigations but that intelligence can not be used as evidence in the law court, Mr Essel emphasised.

By Ekow Quandzie