Four Africans arrested in Japan for money-laundering

Police in Japan acting on an FBI request have arrested six people -- three Nigerians, one Ghanaian and two Japanese nationals -- in a money-laundering case, officials said Thursday.

The six are suspected of having received funds that were the proceeds of a crime, wired to them from a New York Citibank account in the name of the National Bank of Ethiopia, Japan's Metropolitan Police Department said.

Police said they had arrested a Nigerian citizen, Nyeche Obeneme, 36, living in Saitama, north of Tokyo, and two other Nigerian men as well as a Ghanaian man, and a Japanese man and woman.

Police suspect the six between them received up to 200 million yen (2.4 million dollars) in October 2008, allowing the money to be wired into their bank accounts in return for commissions.

The money is believed to be part of roughly 33 million dollars that were wired to accounts in seven countries, also including China, South Korea and Australia, Kyodo News reported.

"With the help of the FBI, we made the arrests on alleged violations of the organised crime law," the police spokesman said, referring to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Source: Daily Notion

Mediawatch: $500,000 diverted by Free Zones CEO?

Mediawatch Research Associates, an organization dedicated to addressing corruption in Ghana and Africa is calling on the Ghanaian Government, the Attorney General, and the Criminal Investigations Department to investigate the alleged disappearance of 500,000 Dollars from the Ghana Free Zones Account between May 2009 and November 2010.

The Group also wants the above institutions to investigate a deposit account at the Standard Bank in South Africa registered in the names of Mr. Kwadwo Twum Boafo, the current CEO of the Ghana Free Zones Board and Pieter Van Huggestien, a South African Businessman currently wanted for corporate fraud and false accounting in South Africa and believed to be hiding in Djakarta, Indonesia, of which 500,000 Dollars which is part of the free zones budget allocation was deposited in three batches between June and September 2010.

The group wants Mr. Kojo Twum Boafo to step aside due to the serious nature of these acts of corruption.

The following is the Group’s full statement:

INVESTIGATE CORRUPTION AND STEALING AT THE GHANA FREE ZONES BOARD

Mediawatch Research Associates is calling on the Ghanaian Government, the Attornery General, Ghana and the Criminal Investigations Office of the Ghana Police Service to investigate the alleged disappearance of 500,000 Dollars from the Ghana Free Zones Account for the year MAY 2009 to NOV 2010. We also call on the above organizations to

A. investigate a deposit account at the Standard Bank in South Africa registered in the Names of Mr. Kwadwo Twum Boafo, the current Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Free Zones Board and Pieter Van Huggestien, a South African Businessman currently wanted for corporate fraud and false accounting in South Africa and believed to be hiding in Djarkata, Indonesia, of which 500,000 Dollars which is part of the free zones budget allocation was deposited in three batches on the following dates

11th June, 2010- 300,000 Dollars

1st of July, 2010- 100,000 Dollars

15th of September, 2010- 100,000 Dollars

B. Investigate allegations that the Ghana FreeZones Board is being used for money laundering for some South African Nationals who have registered companies in Ghana to evade customs duties for a fee with the monies diverted into the accounts in South Africa.

C. Why Mr. Twum Boafo has opened a Special Deposit Account(SDA) under a Ghana Free Zones Board Investment initiative in Namibia and Angola for 2 other individuals one in the name of Pieter van Huggestien of which regular deposits are to be made starting October 2010. The authorities would need to find out who the other person is

D. Why Kojo Twum Boafo has diverted resources and logistics from the Ghana Free Zones to a company he owns with Mr. Ato Ahwoi at Labone estates

MEDIAWATCH is calling for

1. Kojo Twum Boafo to stand down from his position due to the serious nature of these acts of corruption

2. The Attorney General and EOCO carry out a forensic examination of all electronic mail and financial transactions of Mr. Twum Boafo and other staff since May 2009.

3. The Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police service investigates financial crime and theft of public funds.

We wait for action from President Mills and his government on this breach of public trust.

Mrs. Haleema Asana Kabore

Mediawatch Research Associates

Source: CITIFM

Ghana fingered in Australia massive identity fraud

Ghana has been named as one of the countries whose citizens are stealing the identities of Australians.

News out in the Australian media say the theft which is in a large scale involves spies, drug dealers, illegal immigrants and people engaged in money laundering.

The report say passport details of five people emailed to a travel agent for travel for people from Ghana has been found.

One report by the Herald Sun citing documents from the country’s Department of Foreign Affairs and trade says the illegal practice of forging passports of living Australians is widespread.

According to the report, a fake or doctored Australian passport has been found, on average, once a week in the past three years.

Fake passports were detected at ports in countries including Britain, Dubai, Ghana, Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Turkey, and Peru, the report indicated.

According to the report, some of the passports were in the hands of spies, smugglers and thieves.

Australian passports were used in 525 frauds in the last financial year, and many people were caught lying to get a passport, it said.

Source: Citifmonline

Ghana: Public Urged to Disclose Identity of Corrupt Judges

An Appeals Court Judge, Justice Benjamin Teiko Aryeetey, has urged the public to be bold to disclose the identity of judges who allegedly indulge in corrupt practices in the course of discharging their official duties, for investigation.
He made the suggestion today when he and two other Appeals Court Judges nominated by the President to the Supreme Court appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament for vetting.
The two other nominees include Justice Nasiru Sulemana Gbadegbe and Justice Vida Akoto-Bamfo.

Answering questions about how perceived corruption within the judiciary could be curtailed, Justice Benjamin Aryeetey noted that usually those who accuse some judges of being corrupt fail to come forward to substantiate their allegation with evidence when asked to do so.

He said the complaints unit set up by the Judiciary Service is to enable the public the opportunity to channel their authorities for appropriate action to be taken. He said there is no need now to set any upper limit to the number of judges could be appointed to the Supreme Court. She also suggested ways to decongest the prisons.

Source: Peacefmonline

Ghana, UNODC sign agreement on drug trafficking and money laundering

Ghana has signed two agreements with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to build the operational and logistical capacity of the law enforcement agencies to combat drug trafficking and money laundering, Ghana News Agency reported on Sunday.

An agreement on the Global Container Control Program, a joint project between UNODC and the World Customs Organization (WCO), would aim at creating a port control team, consisting of the different law enforcement agencies to inspect containers arriving at Ghana's seaports.

The project, with a duration of two and half years, is expected to lead to significant seizures of narcotic drugs and illicit weapons, as scanners and relevant equipment to detect drugs and illicit weapons hidden in containers would be provided under the agreement.

It would also provide specialized skills training for the law enforcement agencies, as well as improved intelligence gathering and information sharing among the law enforcement agencies in Ghana and the international community.

The other agreement, in support of the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing in West Africa, aims at supporting the anti-money laundering efforts in West Africa by enhancing specialized knowledge, legislative framework and operational capability at the sub-regional and national levels.

The Anti-Money Laundering Inter-Governmental Group of the ECOWAS Secretariat and the UNODC are jointly implementing the project. It would assist Ghana with the enactment of laws and create the necessary institutions to combat money laundering.

Interior Minister Albert Kan-Dapaah, who signed the first agreement, reaffirmed the government's will to fight the dangers associated with illicit trafficking in drugs and arms, expressing the hope that Ghana would attain the benefits of the project in order to make the country free from the menace.

The project would help to solve Ghana's seaport policing problems and would afford personnel adequate training in modern ways of detecting drugs at the ports, said the minister.

As part of the project, a special anti-drug unit would be set up to combat illicit drug trafficking at the ports, he added.

Kwame Osei-Prempeh, Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney General, who signed the agreement against money laundering, said Ghana was appending its signature to the agreement to make it an unattractive destination for money launderers, pledging the governments' commitment to combat the issue.

Currently, an anti-money laundering bill is before Parliament for consideration and the agreement is expected to provide the technical inputs to fine tune the document.

Antonio Mazzitelli, regional representative of the UNODC, who signed both agreements for the organization, commended the Ghananian government for the political will to sign the agreements and to commit itself to combat the problem.

Even though the agreements were not the panacea to the problem it was a step in the right direction, he said.

Source: Xinhua

http://english.people.com.cn/200702/12/eng20070212_349366.html

Inside A Money-Laundering-From-Home Operation

Steve Bryant, over at GoogleWatch, has gone through a recent subpoena from US Immigration and Customs to Yahoo where they're trying to catch an online counterfeit money laundering scammer that gives you a decent idea of how the scam works. Basically, the scammers (in Ghana) advertise online for people in the US who want to "work from home." They then send them packages of counterfeit travellers checks. The recipient is asked to take the bundles out of one FedEx box, move them to another and ship them to someone else's house. The next person (who thinks they're dealing with an entirely different company), is told to cash the checks, keep 10% for themselves, and then send the rest to someone else outside the country who likely doesn't exist and is simply a place for the money to go. That way, the scammers send a bunch of counterfeit money into the US, it gets moved around a few times making it harder to track, and then is converted to valid currency by someone who doesn't realize they're using counterfeit money. You would think that those who sign up for such money-laundering-from-home operations would be a bit more suspicious, but as long as they're getting paid for shipping around boxes or wiring money, they don't seem to care very much.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070129/110725.shtml