Attorney-General Dominic Ayine has formally charged former National Signals Bureau (NSB) Director-General, Kwabena Adu Boahene and his wife Angela Adjei Boateng over corruption offences to the tune of several millions of cedis.
Together with two others, Mildred Donkor and Advantage Solutions Limited, they are facing charges of 11 counts of offences, including stealing, money laundering, defrauding by false pretences, and wilfully causing financial loss.
According to the writ filed at the High Court on Wednesday, April 30, Mr Adu-Boahene, who was responsible for overseeing critical national security infrastructure, including contracts with foreign companies, signed a deal with an Israeli company, ISC Holdings Limited, to purchase cyber defence software for $7 million.
In total, Adu-Boahene is alleged to have transferred approximately GHS 49 million (around $7 million) from the NSB’s funds into his personal accounts, falsely justifying these transactions as payments for the cyber defence systems, together with his accomplice.
“Further investigations have revealed that no cybersecurity system of the description in the January 30, 2020, contract was ever received by the Bureau of National Communication or by its successor agency, the National Signals Bureau, or by the Government of Ghana,” court documents available to MyJoyOnline indicated.
Adu-Boahene’s wife, Angela Adjei Boateng, is one of three directors of Advantage Solutions Limited, the sole shareholder of BNC Communications Bureau Limited.
Mildred Donkor is a former bank relationship officer for Adu-Buahene, his wife and BNC Communications Bureau Limited.
BNC was created by Adu-Boahene and his wife while he was still the NSB boss, and the company was used for the transaction of the security system purchased from the Israeli firm ISC Holdings Limited.
While an initial payment of GHS 9.5 million (about $1.75 million) was transferred to ISC Holdings, no further payments were made to the company.
Instead, subsequent funds were diverted for personal use, including investments and transfers to unknown parties.
The court documents alleged that Adu-Boahene, his wife and Mildred “Therefore ran an elaborate criminal enterprise using A4 (Advantage Solutions Limited) as a holding company through which the stolen funds were funnelled and laundered for their benefit”.
The documents added that as the holding company for several subsidiary companies, including the Private BNC, A4 received a substantial portion of the stolen funds which were then invested by its shareholders and directors in the business activities of the subsidiaries, including investments in treasury bills, real estate, the manufacturing of fertiliser and rental of luxury cars to VIP customers.
Attached is the full court document.