Businessman remanded for defrauding Vietnamese
An Accra Circuit Court on Monday remanded a businessman, Dennis Ndukwu, for defrauding by false pretences.
Dennis was charged for conspiracy, forgery of documents, impersonation and defrauding by false pretences.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges but was remanded by the court to reappear on September 15.
Dennis conspired with one other now at large, and forged certain documents, to wit certificate of ownership, Ministry of Justice letter head and a Law firm letter head, presented himself as the Secretary to the Chief of Staff and defrauded one Le Van Khiem of an amount of $105,740.00.
Prosecuting Police Chief Inspector Kwabena Adu told the court that the complainant and the accused person are both Businessmen living in Accra.
He said the complainant is a business partner to the victim Le Van Khiem, who had a power of Attorney for his partner to lodge a complaint on his behalf after the accused person and his accomplices now at large defrauded him of the money.
He said the complainant told the police that his partner a Vietnamese national, whose uncle invested in Ghana and had $8,500,000.00 in his account with the Standard Chartered Bank.
The prosecution said this said uncle later died in an earthquake in Japan and he Le Van Khiem, being the next of kin, called the Bank of Ghana and informed them of his intention to stop the investment and take his money.
He told the court that the bank gave his a number to contact a lawyer in Ghana by name Henry Adako, to assist him end the investment, which he did.
Police Chief Inspector Adu said in 2011, the said lawyer also died. Dennis and his accomplices met the victim on the Internet after they had conducted series of research into his background and told him they could help him to end the investment and also retrieve what he had already invested.
He said Dennis and his accomplices forged a letterhead with the name, Jam Kojo Chambers as a law firm for the Chief of Staff Mr Julius Debrah and that, he Dennis is the Secretary of the Chief of Staff.
Dennis also forged a document purported to have come from the Ministry of Justice and certificate of ownership transferring the investment in victim name.
He told the court that the accused person then demanded that, the victim bring the original investment documents and death certificate of his uncle to help complete the transfer. Victim sent same to the him and his accomplices
He said they also demanded money and collected $4,740.00 from the victim to use for the processing of the documents. Not satisfied demanded more money to complete the process, but he informed them that it was difficult to send money to Vietnam so he travelled to Thailand to do the transfer.
Police Chief Inspector Adu said based on this information, they made the victim send them his Visa card which they used to withdraw an amount of $100,000.00 from his account.
He told the court that it came to a point where the Bank became suspicious about the rate at which money was being withdrawn from the account and consequently blocked the visa card.
He said when they were not getting access to the money at the bank, they demanded an amount of $1,500.00 from the victim to see the Finance Minister who, they said was reluctant to append his signature.
Le Van Khiem, instructed a friend in the US to send $1000.00 to them, which he did, after which they demanded for the remaining $500.00 de requested for.
The prosecution said, the victim later contacted the complainant’s partner in Ghana and discussed the issue with him, only to find out that the persons he had been dealing with were fraudsters.
He said the complainant them instructed the complainant to report the matter to the police, after which he called the accused person to meet him for the remaining $500.00,
He told the court that an arrangement was made with the police and when the accused person and one accomplice by name Robert Amuzu came to collect the money, Dennis was arrested by the other managed to escape.
Source: GNA