Owusu Bempah Jailed
KWAKU OWUSU Bempah, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Temecular Investments has been sentenced to eight years imprisonment in hard labour for stealing $100,982 belonging to the Adabraka branch of Merchant Bank, in Accra.
The trial judge, Mrs. Jennifer Duodu, however discharged two of his alleged accomplices on the run, Kwaku and Abena Gyimah, saying the prosecution had failed to prove that they were indeed guilty of the offence for which they were hauled before the court.
The accused person, who was arraigned last year, pleaded not guilty to the charges of conspiracy to commit crime and stealing.
The facts before the court as presented by the prosecution were that the complainant was the Head of Retail Banking at the Merchant Bank Head Office in Accra, while the accused person was the CEO of Temecular Investments at Adabraka.
On January 3, 2006, the accused person and his alleged accomplices presented their documents to the Adabraka branch of Merchant Bank as business partners who wanted to open a foreign account with them.
They opened the accounts with a US$100,982 cheque from Citibank in New York with the account name Temecular Investments Limited, with the sole signatory of the account being Owusu Bempah.
On March 29, 2006, Bempah began withdrawals from the bank and exhausted the whole money by July 31, 2006.
On December 26, 2006, Merchant Bank received a fax message from Citibank that the cheque was a stolen one and that the accused person altered the company's name, so Merchant Bank was subsequently made to pay back the amount to Citibank.
Consequently, Bempah was arrested after a complaint was lodged with the police and he admitted the offence.
He explained that the cheque was given to him by his alleged accomplices but he did not bother to find the source.
During investigations it was revealed that the cheque had been issued to a company called Northrop Grummann.Com but the accused person and his accomplices managed to lay their hands on it and altered it to read Temecular Investment and later cashed it.
The accused person was arraigned after police investigations.
The prosecuting officer in the case was Chief Inspector Benneh.
By Fidelia Achama