The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has announced that the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), has frozen and impounded some assets of shareholders, directors and management of the failed Savings & Loans Companies, Finance Houses, and Microfinance Institutions.
According to the Central Bank, this is to aid the reimbursements of the claimants of the defunct institutions.
A statement by the Central Bank noted that the decision was taken due to an emerging trend observed over the last few years.
The BoG has since October 2020 submitted five separate requests to EOCO for investigations into claims of persons (individuals, businesses, and law firms acting on behalf of clients) who have persistently made claims on the BoG to the effect that certain large sums of money purportedly remitted to them by foreign counter-parties through the banking system have been withheld by the Bank.
The Central Bank noted that these claimants often attached documentation alleged to be messaging from the SWIFT international funds transfer system, as proof of the receipt and retention of their funds by BoG. The statement said following preliminary investigations showing that these claims are fake, BoG has referred such matters to EOCO for further investigations