Beige Bank case: Nyinaku accused of issuing misleading Investment Certificates to Unsuspecting Customers

The High Court hearing the criminal case against former CEO and owner of Beige Bank, Mike Nyinaku, has been told by the First Prosecution Witness that Mike Nyinaku supervised the issuance of misleading investment certificates to unsuspecting customers who believed they were investing with the Bank.

Mr Sory, in his cross-examination, claimed that customer funds/monies that had allegedly been siphoned from Beige Bank to Beige Capital Asset Management, a company owned by Mike Nyinaku, were done in the ordinary course of Beige Bank’s business.

In direct response to Mr Sory’s argument, Mr Ayivor explained that even though funds/monies placed by customers with Beige Bank became the property of the Bank, those funds/monies equally stood to the credit of those customers to whom the Bank had an obligation to pay back those funds/monies, when those customers made a request for them.

Mr Ayivor further stated that, siphoning those funds from the accounts of the customers into the account of Beige Capital Asset Management also held with Beige Bank on the instructions of Mike Nyinaku, without the instructions or knowledge of the affected customers, meant that the affected customers only had access to the balance that remained on their accounts with the Bank after the funds/monies had been siphoned.

Mr Ayivor also added that, once the funds/monies got into the account of Beige Capital Asset Management, those funds/monies stood to the credit of Beige Capital Asset Management and not the customers any longer, explaining why Beige Capital Asset Management together with Mike Nyinaku had access to those funds totalling GH¢448 million, most of which were appropriated, leaving a balance of GH¢539,515 as of 1 August 2018 on Beige Capital Asset Management’s account, at the time when the Bank’s license was revoked by Bank of Ghana.

Mr Ayivor had during previous proceedings explained to the court, using twelve (12) samples out of the over 10,000 affected customers, how the funds/monies of customers of the Bank were siphoned out of their account causing the Government to provide resources to settle the affected customers.

During one of those proceedings, on 13th March 2023, Mr Ayivor referred the court to a document that had been tendered in evidence which is a report prepared by Beige Bank’s Receiver that was submitted to the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice (AG’s Office) based on a request from the AG’s office.

Mr Ayivor also stated that, all the over 10,000 affected customers, who placed funds/monies in their current account with the Bank for the purpose of buying Fixed Deposits with the Bank never knew that those funds had been siphoned to another entity, Beige Capital Asset Management, as the certificate of investment that was issued to the customers under Mike Nyinaku’s supervision only had “BEIGE” embossed on the certificates, which had been issued by Beige Capital Asset Management and not Beige Bank.

Mr Ayivor, alleged, using one of those certificates that had  been issued to one Emmanuel Richard Ofori in connection with a GH¢4million investment, that those “BEIGE” certificates were intentionally issued to the affected customers to “mislead” the customers into thinking that the funds remained placed with Beige Bank in fixed deposits, while indeed those funds had been moved from the customer’s account with Beige Bank to Beige Capital Asset Management’s account.

In another question, Mr Sory claimed that Bidvest Microfinance Limited, one of the over 10,000 customers whose funds had allegedly been siphoned to Beige Capital Asset Management without their knowledge and instructions had fully been repaid their deposit of GH¢3 million, which Mr Ayivor alleged had been siphoned out of their account before Beige Bank’s license was withdrawn.