Accountant in GH¢2.4m tax evasion case files for bail
An Accra Circuit Court has remanded Michael Sumnaya Adedina, an Accountant with Medeena Consult Limited, for the second time for allegedly faking Ghana Revenue Authority receipts to evade tax of GH¢2,495,778.
Adedina’s lawyers filed a plea for bail after the court remanded him until his first appearance on January 4, 2024.
At the Circuit Court on Wednesday, an Assistant State Attorney informed the court that she had just been served with the accused person’s motion for bail.
The court presided over by Mrs. Afia Owusuaa Appiah adjourned the matter to January 25, 2024.
The state is expected to respond to Adedina’s motion for bail.
Adedina has been charged with an unauthorized attempt to collect tax, forgery of official documents, stealing, fraudulent breach of trust and making false or misleading statements contrary to section 74 of the Revenue Administration Act 2016 (Act 915).
The accused pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
The Court on January 4, 2024, struck out two of the counts because they did not support the charges.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Evans Kesse told the Court that the complainant in the case is the Country Manager for BMG Infrastructure Company Limited located at Tarkwa in the Western Region.
The prosecution said the company was a foreign-owned mining waste processing company, established in Tarkwa in 2021 and registered with the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC).
The court heard that Adedina approached the complainant and introduced himself as a professional accountant, who could prepare all their accounting bookings and represent their interest professionally.
Consequently, the company outsourced all matters relating to accounting including statutory payments and the preparation of various tax types with the Ghana Revenue Authority and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust for its employees to Adedina.
The prosecution said since his appointment in 2021, Adedina prepared and collected funds from the Company at the end of every month to pay for the various tax handles.
Following each payment, Adedina provided the complaint with legitimate Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) receipts as confirmation of payment.
It said on May 31, 2023, the GRA conducted a tax audit into the activities of BMG Infrastructure Limited and detected a tax liability of GH¢2,495,778.00 against the company, which raised suspicion.
The prosecution said consequently, the Company launched investigations to find out the cause of that huge liability.
The prosecution said investigations showed that Adedina had over the period failed to pay all the monies he collected from BMG as taxes to GRA.
A report was submitted to the GRA via GIPC with the relevant receipts for verification, and it turned out that Adedina had been falsifying GRA’s official receipts.
Following the worrying development, an official complaint was made on December 29, 2023, to the investigation wing of GRA and Adedina was arrested for investigations.
During interrogation and in his caution statement to the police, Adedina admitted to the crime and stated that he downloaded the GRA payment receipts, modified them to include the tax values, and submitted the fake copies to the complainant as if actual taxes had been paid.
The prosecution said Adedina disclosed that he used part of the money to buy concessions for mining purposes, which went bad.
The prosecutor said Adedina indicated that he used part of the money to buy a Toyota Hilux Pickup at the cost of GH¢650,000.00 and a Lexus SUV vehicle at the cost of GH¢550,000.00.
The prosecution informed the court that Adedina used some of the revenue to build a four-bedroom home in Tarkwa Aboso.
Further investigation is underway to identify those assets.
Source: GNA