Emmanuel Sakyi Afriyie, a 25-year-old contract employee of one of Ghana’s leading banks, was recently seized by security agents for allegedly stealing over GH1.2 million from clients’ bank accounts.
Accounts were stolen from a deceased judge and a former Inspector General of Police, among others.
Some of the stolen money is thought to have been transferred to Afriyie’s personal bank account, as well as the accounts of his 17 collaborators in other banks and mobile money accounts.
He is also accused of embarking on a shopping spree with some of the cash, including buying an iPhone 14 Pro Max and a Toyota Camry.
According to the inquiry, the suspect planned to escape to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with his girlfriend after purchasing an airline ticket.
However, luck was not on his side, as security officers acted rapidly, setting the groundwork for his arrest on June 4, 2023, at Kotoka International Airport.
“On June 4, 2023, A1 attempted to flee the jurisdiction to Dubai with his girlfriend Ivy Okertchiri, who stood as surety for him, but he was arrested at the Kotoka International Airport by the Ghana Immigration Service and handed over to the police,” the Chronicle Newspaper reported.
Afriyie obtained his boss’ password by surreptitiously recording her as she entered it onto her phone, according to reports.
He then used the captured video to figure out her password and stole money from customers’ accounts for two months.
Some of his colleagues were apprehended, transported to court, and imprisoned before being granted bail.
Afriyie faces several charges, including conspiracy and theft, along with several of his friends. He is also accused of faking documents and creating accounts, bringing his total number of claims to 13. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges brought against him.
He is scheduled to appear before a court presided over by Ellen Ofei-Ayeh on June 16, 2023.
Meanwhile, eleven accused co-conspirators are still at large, and police are conducting investigations.
Read the following facts about the case:
According to the officer in charge of presenting evidence in court, the complainant in this instance is Nana Addo Ampem-Darko, the Head of Fraud Detection and Operations at Absa Bank Ghana Limited.
He claims that A1 lives in Labone and worked as the bank’s contractual Processing Officer up until May of this year.
Richard, 31, is a dealer; Michael, 25, is also a trader; Fouad, 32, is a System Administrator; and Caleb, 25 is an entrepreneur, he added. Cecil is 26 and a student at the University of Ghana.
A7 Clinton Asamoah, A8 Kwame Owusu Buadu, A9 Nicholas Nii Sai, A10 Nana Kwesi Gyimah, A11 Benjamin Adoari, A12 Daniel Osei, A13 Boadu Nana Yaw Adjei, A14 Joseph D Anim, A15 Ernest Aryee, A16 Isaac De-Heer, and A17 Othniel Amankwah Darkwa remain at large.
He testified that in February of 2022, Al was hired by Absa Bank on a contract basis and assigned to the Osu branch as a Processing Officer. In this role, Al was responsible for assisting customers with a variety of banking needs, including but not limited to: loan processing, T-bill processing, debit card processing, dormant account activation, and customer account maintenance.
According to C/Insp. Anquandah, Emmanuel’s job duties required him to handle multiple accounts, including EkuaEwuduwaDadzie’s bonus and savings funds.
But in February of 2023, Al enrolled in an online coding course that cost the equivalent of GH2,287.69 (USD 174.30) per year to renew.
On February 6, 2023, A1 paid for the seminar with Rev. Cynthia Patricia Asamoah’s Visa rather than with his own money.
As a result, the complainant and the bank’s Fraud team were compiling information on the incident in preparation to approach Al for involvement when the latter abruptly tendered his resignation, effective May 31, 2023.
The bank officials became increasingly skeptical of A1 after his sudden retirement and the alleged unlawful transaction on the customer’s visa card.
The complaint and the bank’s IT experts on the fraud team discovered that on April 20, 2023, Al had changed the contact number on the accounts of another client, Ekua Ewuduwa Dadzie, using the credentials of one of his coworkers.
So, on April 21, 2023, Al personally set up internet and mobile banking access on Ekua Ewuduwa Dadzie’s accounts using his own User ID and password, and then he gained access and began operating on the accounts without the victim customer receiving SMS notice.
With this access, Al fraudulently transferred a total of GH945,133.00 including charges from the accounts to a variety of people between April 21 and May 12, 2023.
Prior to anything else, he wired GH90,000.00 to the Cal bank and Fidelity bank accounts of Cecil’s girlfriend, Rhoda AbenaGransimaaPanyinQuansah; GH180,000.00 to Richard’s Cal bank account; GH30,000.00 to Michael’s Cal bank account; and GH30,000.00 to Fouad’s GT bank account.
In addition, GH30,000.00 was deposited into Caleb’s Cal Bank account, GH30,000.00 was deposited into Kwame’s Access Bank account, GH60,000.00 was deposited into Nicholas’s Fidelity Bank account, and GH90,000.00 was deposited into Nana Kwesi’s Cal Bank account.
In addition to Benjamin’s GH60,000.00 at Ecobank, Daniel’s GH30,000.00 at Fidelity, Boadu’s GH30,000.00 at GT Bank, and Joseph’s GH60,000.00 at FNB Bank, each of the four men had a total of GH120,000.00 in their respective bank accounts.
All GH30,000.00 transfers occurred on separate dates over the aforementioned time frame.
Between 7:21 and 7:32 a.m. on May 9, 2023, he unauthorized the contact numbers of eleven customers’ accounts and changed them to a single number, 0531668674. This included the accounts of the late Justice Anthony Kofi Abada, former IGP, late Mr. Ernest Ako, Williams Joe Frimpong, Rev. Theodora Baaba Hackman, and Esther Marian Hackman.
The prosecution claims Al spent eleven minutes on this process on May 10, 2023, and then used his own User ID to set up online and mobile banking for these accounts.
Al moved GHC50,000.00 from Esther Marian Hackman’s account to Ernest Aryee’s Absa account on May 11, 2023. He repeated the process the following day with GHC50,000.00 transfers from the accounts of the late Ernest Ako, Williams Joe Frimpong, and Rev. Theodora Baaba Hackman to a few other Absa account holders.
Ernest, Othniel, and Isaac were the lucky recipients of the money transfers.In their cautioned statements to investigators, Cecil, Richard, Michael, and Fouad told the court that Clinton had come into their stores to buy an iPhone XS Max and had asked for the details of their bank accounts before forwarding them to Al so that he could make fraudulent transfers into their accounts.
Al was arrested on May 12, 2023 for the theft of a Visa Card and afterwards released on police enquiry bail.
The complainant, acting on behalf of the bank, submitted a petition to the Director General of CID on May 15, 2023, regarding a theft of GH1,207,017.00 in connection with the Visa Card case.
Interestingly, Al did not show up when police asked him to, and neither did his surety when she was asked to present him.
On June 4, 2023, A1 and his girlfriend Ivy Okertchiri, who acted as surety for him, attempted to flee the country and make their way to Dubai. However, the Ghana Immigration Service apprehended A1 at the Kotoka International Airport and turned him over to the police.
C/Ins Anquandah reported that the inquiry uncovered thefts of GH1,209,304.69 from the accounts of the aforementioned customers committed by Al and his accomplices in April and May 2023.
According to the officer in charge of presenting evidence in court, the complainant in this instance is Nana Addo Ampem-Darko, the Head of Fraud Detection and Operations at Absa Bank Ghana Limited.
He claims that A1 lives in Labone and worked as the bank’s contractual Processing Officer up until May of this year.
Richard, 31, is a dealer; Michael, 25, is also a trader; Fouad, 32, is a System Administrator; and Caleb, 25 is an entrepreneur, he added. Cecil is 26 and a student at the University of Ghana.
A7 Clinton Asamoah, A8 Kwame Owusu Buadu, A9 Nicholas Nii Sai, A10 Nana Kwesi Gyimah, A11 Benjamin Adoari, A12 Daniel Osei, A13 Boadu Nana Yaw Adjei, A14 Joseph D Anim, A15 Ernest Aryee, A16 Isaac De-Heer, and A17 Othniel Amankwah Darkwa remain at large.
He testified that in February of 2022, Al was hired by Absa Bank on a contract basis and assigned to the Osu branch as a Processing Officer. In this role, Al was responsible for assisting customers with a variety of banking needs, including but not limited to: loan processing, T-bill processing, debit card processing, dormant account activation, and customer account maintenance.
According to C/Insp. Anquandah, Emmanuel’s job duties required him to handle multiple accounts, including EkuaEwuduwaDadzie’s bonus and savings funds.
But in February of 2023, Al enrolled in an online coding course that cost the equivalent of GH2,287.69 (USD 174.30) per year to renew.
On February 6, 2023, A1 paid for the seminar with Rev. Cynthia Patricia Asamoah’s Visa rather than with his own money.
As a result, the complainant and the bank’s Fraud team were compiling information on the incident in preparation to approach Al for involvement when the latter abruptly tendered his resignation, effective May 31, 2023.
The bank officials became increasingly skeptical of A1 after his sudden retirement and the alleged unlawful transaction on the customer’s visa card.
The complaint and the bank’s IT experts on the fraud team discovered that on April 20, 2023, Al had changed the contact number on the accounts of another client, Ekua Ewuduwa Dadzie, using the credentials of one of his coworkers.
So, on April 21, 2023, Al personally set up internet and mobile banking access on Ekua Ewuduwa Dadzie’s accounts using his own User ID and password, and then he gained access and began operating on the accounts without the victim customer receiving SMS notice.
With this access, Al fraudulently transferred a total of GH945,133.00 including charges from the accounts to a variety of people between April 21 and May 12, 2023.
Prior to anything else, he wired GH90,000.00 to the Cal bank and Fidelity bank accounts of Cecil’s girlfriend, Rhoda AbenaGransimaaPanyinQuansah; GH180,000.00 to Richard’s Cal bank account; GH30,000.00 to Michael’s Cal bank account; and GH30,000.00 to Fouad’s GT bank account.
In addition, GH30,000.00 was deposited into Caleb’s Cal Bank account, GH30,000.00 was deposited into Kwame’s Access Bank account, GH60,000.00 was deposited into Nicholas’s Fidelity Bank account, and GH90,000.00 was deposited into Nana Kwesi’s Cal Bank account.
In addition to Benjamin’s GH60,000.00 at Ecobank, Daniel’s GH30,000.00 at Fidelity, Boadu’s GH30,000.00 at GT Bank, and Joseph’s GH60,000.00 at FNB Bank, each of the four men had a total of GH120,000.00 in their respective bank accounts.
All GH30,000.00 transfers occurred on separate dates over the aforementioned time frame.
Between 7:21 and 7:32 a.m. on May 9, 2023, he unauthorized the contact numbers of eleven customers’ accounts and changed them to a single number, 0531668674. This included the accounts of the late Justice Anthony Kofi Abada, former IGP, late Mr. Ernest Ako, Williams Joe Frimpong, Rev. Theodora Baaba Hackman, and Esther Marian Hackman.
The prosecution claims Al spent eleven minutes on this process on May 10, 2023, and then used his own User ID to set up online and mobile banking for these accounts.
Al moved GHC50,000.00 from Esther Marian Hackman’s account to Ernest Aryee’s Absa account on May 11, 2023. He repeated the process the following day with GHC50,000.00 transfers from the accounts of the late Ernest Ako, Williams Joe Frimpong, and Rev. Theodora Baaba Hackman to a few other Absa account holders.
Ernest, Othniel, and Isaac were the lucky recipients of the money transfers.In their cautioned statements to investigators, Cecil, Richard, Michael, and Fouad told the court that Clinton had come into their stores to buy an iPhone XS Max and had asked for the details of their bank accounts before forwarding them to Al so that he could make fraudulent transfers into their accounts.
Al was arrested on May 12, 2023 for the theft of a Visa Card and afterwards released on police enquiry bail.
The complainant, acting on behalf of the bank, submitted a petition to the Director General of CID on May 15, 2023, regarding a theft of GH1,207,017.00 in connection with the Visa Card case.
Interestingly, Al did not show up when police asked him to, and neither did his surety when she was asked to present him.
On June 4, 2023, A1 and his girlfriend Ivy Okertchiri, who acted as surety for him, attempted to flee the country and make their way to Dubai. However, the Ghana Immigration Service apprehended A1 at the Kotoka International Airport and turned him over to the police.
C/Ins Anquandah reported that the inquiry uncovered thefts of GH1,209,304.69 from the accounts of the aforementioned customers committed by Al and his accomplices in April and May 2023.
He assured reporters that the police were still looking into the case in an effort to identify and apprehend any remaining suspects and recover any stolen assets.
