$550,000 Allegedly Stolen From GT Bank, Suspect On The Run

$550, 000 of GT Bank money, has allegedly been stolen by a customer of the bank, who worked in connivance with a staff.

The bank staff, Kelvin Koomson, cooperated with a customer, Kwabena Boadi Adankwah, in stealing the said $550,000, belonging to the Ghana head office of GT Bank.

Both have been charged with stealing and abetment, but Mr Adankwah has pleaded not guilty to the charge and had been granted bail in the sum of GH₵3,500,000 with two sureties, two to be justified.

The court, however, issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Kelvin Koomson, who is reportedly on the run, according to The Chronicle.

The prosecuting officer, Chief Inspector Maxwell Ayim told the court, presided over by Mrs Evelyn Asamoah, on Tuesday, 12 October, 2021 that that the complainant in the case is Lukman Ibrahim, an official at the GT Bank Head Office, where Kelvin Kwabena Koomson is a banker.

 Kwahena Boadi Adankwah, on the other hand,  is also Director of Links Field Ridge Reality Limited.

According to the Prosecutor, on January 7, 2016 Mr Adankwah approached Mr Koomson at GT Bank and requested for Bank guarantee to be issued on behalf of his company, Links field Ridge Reality Limited, as a security for a credit facility.

The Prosecutor said Mr Adankwah was then requested to deposit US$550,000 00 as collateral and as a result, he consulted MET Capital Group Limited for assistance.

MET Capital did not hesitate and quickly transferred the above mentioned amount into the first accused person’s (Mr Adankwah) account on January 8, 2016 as collateral requested by GT Bank.

The agreement was that, should the transaction fail to materialise or the bank guarantee expire, GT Bank shall transfer the money back to MET Capital Group Limited.

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Unfortunately, the Prosecutor said the loan request was not successful, but before the money could be transferred back to MEST, Mr Adankwah allegedly secretly went to the second accused person (A2) who is an official of GT Bank and convinced him to withdraw the said US$550,000.00 without the consent of the top management.

The bank later detected the illegal withdraw and confronted Kelvin Kwesi Koomson.

Chief Inspector Ayim stressed that Kelvin Kwesi Koomson could not provide any tangible reason as to why the amount had gone missing from the bank’s treasury and “Based on that, the issue was reported to Adabraka Police station for investigation,” the Prosecutor told the court.

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The prosecutor continued that, on November 28, 2019 Mr Adankwah was arrested and during interrogation, he mentioned Kelvin’s name, as the one who assisted him to withdraw the money from the bank.

Kelvin was subsequently picked up by the police to assist with investigation into the case.

The case has been adjourned to October 26, 2021.