Charges Dropped Against Former Deputy BoG Governor over Banks Collapse
The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dominic Ayine, has dropped all charges against former Second Deputy Bank of Ghana Governor, Johnson Asiama for his alleged role in the collapse of UniBank and UT Bank.
In two separate notices, the new A-G announced the decision.
The Akufo-Addo government had taken Asiama on alongside leadership of both banks in 2020 following the “banking sector clean-up”.
Charges
He was accused of using his position as 2nd Deputy Governor of the BoG to approve the transfer of Gh¢300 million which was an unsecured facility from Unibank to Universal Merchant Bank (UMB).
At the time, the then A-G said Dr Asiama knew that uniBank was in financial distress but he allegedly went ahead to approve the deal. He was therefore charged with wilfully causing financial loss of GHc150 million to the republic contrary to Section 179A(3)a of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 Act (29).
In the case of UT Bank, he was accused of granting liquidity to support UT Bank in the sum of GH₵460 million without satisfying the prescribed conditions set out in the Bank of Ghana Act, 2002 (Act 612) in May 2016.
He was therefore charged with Abetment of crime namely wilfully causing financial loss of GH₵413.09 million to the Republic contrary to sections 20(1) and 179A(3)(a) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).
Accusation
The BoG under the leadership of Dr Ernest Addison had argued that UT Bank and Capital Bank were among the banks that were found to be insolvent after the May 2015 and June 2016 Asset Quality Review (AQR).
It said the two banks had ample time after the AQR to raise the needed capital to restore capital adequacy to the regulatory minimum but failed to do that for which Asiama and his outfit failed to hold them accountable.
It added that there was no evidence on record to show that the previous management took steps to mitigate the risk of ultimate failure of these institutions, as it was required to do under the Banks and Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016, Act 930 which came into effect as far back as in September 2016.
Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini
