The Member of Parliament for Twifo Atti Morkwa, David Vondee has been granted bail in the sum of two million cedis by the Criminal Division of the Accra High court over fraud charges.
Mr. Vondee was dragged to court for allegedly defrauding a company in a deal worth more than 2.4million dollars and has pleaded not guilty to the charges of defrauding by false pretense and money laundering.
The MP for Twifo Atti Morkwa, David Vondee is accused of collecting the said amount between August 2015 and July 2016 under the guise of selling a tract of land to a private company called REI Ghana Limited.
Per the facts of the case, as presented to the court, Mr. Vondee presented himself as a Chief Executive Officer of another private company called Klenam Construction Limited during the transaction.
He is said to have sold the land located at Frafraha in the Adentan Municipality in the Greater Accra Region to the company.
However, an investigation showed later that Mr. Vondee gave the company lands that did not belong to him and also did not return the huge cash he collected from the company when the company demanded their money back.
He has been charged with two counts of defrauding by false pretense contrary to section 131 (1) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960, (Act 29) and money laundering contrary to section 1(2) (c) of the Anti-Money Laundering Act. On the money laundering charge, it stated that David Vondee, between August 2015 and July 2016 in Accra, took possession of the sum of over two million dollars knowing it to be proceeds of the crime.
The AG’s Department said, knowing that his company had not completed their financial obligations toward their grantors and therefore, had no title to any portion of the land, the accused proceeded to prepare an indenture covering about 20 acres of the land in favour of the complainant’s company.
He added, that the accused also presented a land title certificate number GA 44978 to the officials of Africa REI Ghana Ltd as evidence of his company’s ownership of the said land, even though there had been no valid registration of the land.
In 2016, after the complainants had lodged a complaint of fraud against the accused to the police, the accused attempted to settle the matter amicably by granting to the complainant ten 10 acres of land as payment of the money taken from the complainant’s company.
An official search at the Land’s Commission, however, revealed that the 10 acres of land did not belong to the accused or his company.
According to the documents, Mr. Vondee, in his investigative caution statement, admitted collecting the said money from the complainant’s company in exchange of 20 acres of land, which he has not been able to deliver to the complainant because he did not own the said land and did not have title to the lands he offered.
Lawyers for the accused led by Edudzi Tamakloe urged the court to grant him bail. He explained that the MP has so far cooperated with investigations and is willing to make available his passport to the court as well.
Mr. Vondee was then admitted to bail in the sum of two million cedis.
The court granted state prosecutors two weeks to make available to the MP all documents they intend to use as evidence in the trial.
The prosecutors are also to file witness statements to be used as well. The case has been adjourned to 30th of next month for a case management conference.
