Multi-million forgery at TOR, GBC - Ringleader grabbed* Remanded in custody

Front Page: September 9, 2008.
Story: Albert K. Salia

Richard Kwame Afari, the man suspected to have masterminded the multi-billion cedi scandals that rocked the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) last year, has finally been arrested.
Afari, also known as Burgger, is alleged to be the leader of a signature-forging and cheque book-printing syndicate which facilitated the illegal withdrawal of large sums of money from the two companies’ accounts and those of other reputable firms at various banks in Accra.
He was arrested by personnel from the Organised Crime Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service last Sunday at his hideout at a village in the Ga West District.
He was taken to court yesterday and remanded to re-appear on September 22, 2008.
Three members of the syndicate, Mohammed Bagigah, alias Parker, said to be an expert in the forgery of signatures, Bernard Sallah, alias Big Ben, and Frank Mensah Kpemli, alias George Owusu, together with the cashier of TOR, were arrested in July, last year.
Those still on the run are Cecilia Mabogumje Abimbola, Daniel Addo, alias Sampson Omeruah, and Hajia Helen Leyandrou, alias Mamaah.
The Deputy Director of Police Public Affairs, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Cephas Arthur, told the Daily Graphic that the group was said to have specialised in the theft of cheque books and financial documents from reputable organisations and then proceeded to siphon billions of cedis from their bank accounts.
According to him, that led to the illegal withdrawal of more than GH¢200,000 (¢2 billion) from the National Investment Bank (NIB), the International Commercial Bank (ICB), the SG-SSB Bank, the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) and Stanbic Bank, all in Accra.
ASP Arthur said the modus operandi of the group was to target a reputable organisation and then recruit an employee there into its fold.
He explained that whoever was recruited was asked to steal a cheque book, together with any documents bearing the signatures of the rightful signatories to the cheques of that organisation.
He said Afari would then recruit other persons to open accounts at various banks within the city, while Parker employed his expertise to copy the relevant signatures.
ASP Arthur said the syndicate then deposited the cheques at the various banks for them to pass through the three-day inter-bank clearing system, after which the money was cashed.
In the case of TOR, he said, the syndicate wrote cheques totalling GH¢650,000 and at the time of their arrest in July last year, they had managed to cash more than GH¢200,000 from the amount.
ASP Arthur said the vigilance of some workers at Stanbic Bank, however, led to the arrest of one of the suspects, who had cashed more than GH¢300,000 within a week and had gone back to cash GH¢65,000.
He appealed to members of the public to provide information on suspicious characters and criminal activities for the police to deal with them.
He said sometimes members of the public thought the police were reluctant in investigating cases reported to them, which is the case, and stressed that the arrest of Afari showed that with public co-operation and support, the police would apprehend all criminals, no matter how long it took to do that.