Nyinaku challenges government bailout claims of witness in Beige Bank trial

Michael Nyinaku, Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the defunct Beige Bank Group, has challenged claims by Mr Julius Ayivor, a chartered accountant on secondment from KPMG to the office of the receiver for Beige Bank, over assertion that the GH¢4.5 million paid to one of the bank’s customers was paid out of the Government of Ghana (GoG) bailout package.

He said the amount was paid by Beige Capital Assets Management (BCAM) and not the Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG), as Mr Ayivor wanted the High Court trying the matter to believe.

In a cross-examination by Nyinaku’s defence counsel, Mr Thaddeus Sory, at the Court, presided over by Justice Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe, an Appeal Court Judge with an additional responsibility at the High Court heard that BCAM had several bank accounts and assets, which made it capable of meeting that obligation to its customer.

Mr Sory said even at the revocation of the license of Beige Bank, it was still in business and that it was evident on a document before the court that BCAM paid cash to the customer in question, and not CBG making cash deposit into an account held by itself.

He told the court that BCAM had as much as GH¢200 million in its First African Savings and Loans account.

The defence counsel argued that it was not enough for the receiver to base its claim on just one account statement of BCAM with the Beige Bank.

Mr Ayivor, testifying as first Prosecution Witness (PW), maintained that the GH¢4.5 million was money paid to one William Addo out of the GoG’s bailout package.

The PW said BCAM, as at the time of the revocation of the license of Beige Bank, did not have enough funds in its account to meet that obligation.

He also alleged that the GH¢200 million was customers’ funds that were siphoned from their accounts with Beige Bank to BCAM and then to a fictitious account with First African Savings and Loans.

Nyinaku has been charged with the theft of GH¢2.1 billion but he denied the charge and since been granted bail.

Source: GNA