SIM Swap Fraud: Accused Persons Plead Not Guilty, Granted Bail
The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has announced that the four people who were arrested for allegedly illegally withdrawing, GHC200,000 through SIM swap fraud from people’s accounts, have pleaded not guilty.
They have been charged with nine counts of conspiracy to steal, attempt to steal and participating in an organised criminal group.
The four were arraigned before an Accra Circuit Court presided over by Her Honour Judge Ellen Ofei-Ayeh on Wednesday, April 13 2022.
The accused persons are Stephen Arthur, Nicholas Gyekye, Ahmed Ansah and Daniel Kodzi.
EOCO relayed that Stephen Arthur and Nicholas Gyekye were each granted bail in the sum of GHC6 million with three sureties while Ahmed Ansah and Daniel Kodzi were each granted bail in the sum of GHC5 million with three sureties.
According to EOCO, the four (4) were arrested by officers of EOCO for attempting to illegally withdraw an amount of GHC2,100,000 from the accounts of some customers of one of the indigenous banks.
“Investigations revealed that the accused persons sought the assistance of an official of the Bank to provide them with bank account details to assist them withdraw funds from customers’ accounts. Additionally, they requested phone numbers and bank account details of customers with huge balances.
“The accused persons then allegedly connived with an MTN staff who managed to clone three phone numbers with the intention of stealing from the bank’s customers. The sums of GHC850,000, GHC680,000 and GHc50,000 belonging to 3 customers were targeted. The accused persons setup a mobile application with the cloned sims to withdraw the funds from the customers’ bank accounts. It was in their attempt that the accused persons were arrested.”
The case has been adjourned to May 17, 2022.
Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini
