Deputy Attorney General, Dr. Justice Srem Sai, says plea bargaining is the state’s biggest weapon yet in the fight to recover stolen assets.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Wednesday night, he called the legal reform a “game-changer” that gives government prosecutors, for the first time, real leverage in recovering funds looted from the state.

“For years, people went to jail, but the money never came back,” Dr. Srem Sai said.

“Now, we have a legal framework that allows for both voluntary and structured recovery. Plea bargaining is now part of our law. And one of its key objectives is recovery.”

He was responding to questions about why Ghanaians should expect better results from the Office of the Attorney General’s new efforts to retrieve stolen money when past governments largely failed to do so.

“Yes, people got jailed. But regarding the recovery, everyone else has failed,” host Evans Mensah pointed out. Dr. Srem Sai did not dispute that history, but insisted this time is different.

“This is not just about conviction anymore. It’s about bringing the money home. And now we have tools that allow us to do that,” he said.

The Deputy Attorney General revealed that his office is deploying a “very sophisticated” system for tracing and recovering assets.

He said this includes tracking bank accounts and mapping financial transactions with forensic precision.

“If you have an account in Ghana, we will know. All of them,” he said. “We will know when money moves, where it moves, and who ultimately receives it.”

He cited the ongoing prosecution of the former CEO of the Signals Bureau, Kwabena Adu-Boahen, as proof that the system is already working.

“Just today, in that case, we filed over 60 documents. Most of them were bank statements and correspondence from various banks. They show how money moved, down to the minute.”

Dr. Srem Sai explained how investigators follow cash trails step by step.

“Money left Account A at 2 pm. At 3 pm, it appears in the accused’s account at Ex Bank. We see it. Then, a few hours later, that same amount appears in a real estate company’s account. And you ask: why is that money moving that way?”

He said this is how the state now builds airtight cases—not just for prosecution, but for the recovery of stolen wealth.

“Money is traceable,” he said. “And now we are tracing it.”

The Deputy Attorney General made it clear that this strategy does not rely only on confessions or courtroom drama. “We don’t wait for people to admit wrongdoing. We follow the money.”

He called on Ghanaians to pay close attention to the legal disclosures being filed in court. “It’s all there. If you follow the court processes, you’ll see it’s not just stories. It’s evidence.”

For Dr. Srem Sai, the shift is not just tactical, it’s structural. “The era where we just put someone in jail and walk away is over,” he said. “Now we are going after the money, the houses, the cars. Everything.”

He admitted it won’t be easy. But he was confident. “This is the start of something new. This is how we succeed where others failed.”