The Director of the Strategy, Research, and Communication Division at the Office of the Special Prosecutor, has refuted assertions made by the Attorney General that the office failed to provide details of the corruption investigation conducted with the FBI in the Cecilia Dapaah case.
According to Sammy Appiah Darko, contrary to the Attorney General's claims, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) did not ask for the FBI's corruption investigations report.
“At no point in time did EOCO request a copy of the FBI report. You notice that in that paragraph that talks about the investigative report, EOCO never said that they requested a report. They rather said that they had not seen the FBI report. So we want to make it very clear,” Mr Darko said.
He told the host of Newsfile, Samson Lardy Anyenini, that had the request been made, the OSP would have had to seek clearance before dissemination.
“Even if EOCO requested it, this FBI report has a lot of confidentiality clauses on it that were directed particularly to the Special Prosecutor and you can't just give an FBI report to another agency because you have the case transferred there."
"There ought to be a lot of inter-agency collaboration and clearance. So if that happened, then, we may have triggered clearance so that either we are cleared by the FBI or FBI will directly send it to them,” Mr Darko said.
This comes after the Attorney General and Minister of Justice advised EOCO against initiating money laundering investigations into the dealings of former Sanitation Minister, Cecilia Dapaah.
According to the Attorney General's office, the docket presented to EOCO only contained the OSP’s letter transmitting the docket, the diary of action, statements taken during the investigation, and letters written by the OSP to other institutions like the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and banks for inquiries.
The AG’s office also stated in their letter that the OSP did not provide a copy of their investigation report with the FBI to EOCO despite writing to the office.
Further analysis of the docket by the Attorney General's office revealed that the OSP did not find any evidence of corruption or corruption-related offences against Cecilia Dapaah.
The Attorney General's office emphasised that the key to pursuing money laundering investigations is the capacity to prove that financial gains were obtained from criminal proceeds arising from unlawful activity.
"In the absence of the identification of any criminality associated with the properties retrieved from the suspects, the OSP's referral to EOCO for investigations to be conducted into money laundering is without basis," the AG had explained.
However, Mr. Darko insists that if their referral for a money laundering investigation was baseless, the Attorney General would not have directed the police to investigate the source of Cecilia Dapaah’s wealth.
“We have given EOCO platinum information. Ordinarily, you will not even find other agencies giving such information to EOCO,” he said.
Mr. Darko added that the OSP was not conducting money laundering investigations but looking at corruption and its related offences.
As such “we are of the opinion that we had all that it takes to send that referral to EOCO…there is no way we could have proceeded and then investigated and then write a report on money laundering for EOCO, then EOCO will send it to AG,” he said.
“We were not under any obligation to have conducted a money laundering investigative report and given it to EOCO, then what would EOCO do?” he added.
Latest Stories
-
Raid on Ofori-Atta was traumatising and shocking – Frank Davies
11 minutes -
IPPs Dr. Apetorgbor graduates with 7th Masters in Energy Law; pledges to support transformation of electricity value chain
16 minutes -
Moving Agribusiness from Ministry of Food and Agriculture to Ministry of Trade and Industry: My thoughts
21 minutes -
We declared Ofori-Atta a fugitive because he is unwilling to appear before us – OSP
22 minutes -
We’ve been fair to Ofori-Atta and that’s why we wrote to him – OSP insists
22 minutes -
Rambo-sytle invasion and search of Ken Ofori-Atta’s residence demands a thorough investigation, not just apology
25 minutes -
Is Kofi Adams not talking too much? – Fred Acheampong quizzes
37 minutes -
Ibrahim Fuseini secures 2025 World Indoor Championships qualification with 6.51s run
37 minutes -
Asantehene to host responsible mining conference with world Gold Council and others in june
54 minutes -
Not a single item in my office has been replaced – Sammy Gyamfi dismisses ¢173k furniture expenditure allegations
55 minutes -
GFA should’ve hired a Ghanaian psychologist for Black Stars – Collins Badu
1 hour -
Mahama arrives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for African Union summit
1 hour -
Nigerian banks make significant progress to meet new capital requirement; Access, Zenith meet requirement – Fitch
2 hours -
Banks in Ghana ranked 4th in Sub-Saharan Africa as safest from natural disasters
2 hours -
Dr. Felix Kwame Kumedzro inducted as Principal of Akatsi College of Education
2 hours