Rich FM Manager arrested over forgery and misappropriation of GH¢104,090.00
Jonathan Amponsah Mensah, Manager of Assin-Fosu based Rich(FM 98.7) has been arrested by the Police for allegedly forging invoices and misappropriating GH¢104,090.00 belonging to the station.
The suspect is said to have presented series of invoices during the first quarter of 2021, to Dr Richard Kofi Asiedu, Chief Executive Officer of the FM Station, as its annual Regulatory Link Spectrum and Authorisation fees issued by the National Communications Authority (NCA) Office in Takoradi.
The CEO therefore issued cheques to cover payments of the charges and Mensah later presented two receipts with serial numbers: 00070 dated 02/01/2021 and 00441/2021 dated 10/03/2021 to Dr Asiedu being payments he claimed to have paid covering 2019 to date.
However, suspicious of the sudden rise in the charges, Dr Asiedu later sought clarification from the NCA office in Takoradi , where the purported payments were made with two of the invoices including payment receipts of respective cash amounts of GH¢21,000.00 and GH¢25,000.00 Mensah presented..
After thorough scrutiny, the Authority uncovered that the invoices and receipts which have the supposed signature of the Acting Director General of the Authority, Mr Joe Anokye on them, were all forged documents and inconsistent with what were on record during the period reviewed.
Sergeant Isaac Evans Ettie, Deputy Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Central Regional Police Command, confirmed the arrest to the Ghana News Agency in Cape Coast.
According to the Deputy PRO of the Command, upon thorough scrutiny, the NCA uncovered that the two invoices which captured the purported signatures of Mr Anokye, Acting Director-General of the Authority were forged.
Sergeant Ettie, said the NCA further detected that the radio station had defaulted in the payments of its charges since 2019.
He said on Wednesday, July 14, at about 1430 hours, Dr Asiedu, reported Mensah to the Police for dishonestly forging and signing official documents.
He said the suspect was arrested and assisting the Police with investigations, while the two forged invoices and receipts of NCA have been kept as evidence.
Source: GNA