Owners of Lushann International Energy Ghana Limited, operators of the Saltpond Oilfields have disputed an 84.1 million cedis debt attributed to them by defunct UT Bank.
A report by Boulders Advisors has cited Quincy Sintim and related companies for owing the amount in question which contributed to the bank’s woes and eventual collapse.
But the CEO of Lushann, Quincy Sintim Aboagye rather alleges that UT Bank has been complicit in defrauding his company and the government of Ghana to the tune of 102.4 million dollars.
UT Bank, company staff cheat system
According to Mr. Sintim Aboagye, UT bank colluded with a former Project Manager of Saltpond Offshore Producing Company, Kennedy Oham to carry out the act.
He explained in an interview with Citi Business News that the duo, redirected monies from UT bank guarantees to a fictitious company established by Oham.
“UT colluded with others and used our letters of credit and the company’s account to defraud it to the tune of almost 103 million dollars. We have also discovered from the commercial courts that the bank used an account to transact the money laundering activities…these are all exhibits that are in the court system,” he claimed.
Mr. Sintim Aboagye further narrated other transactions that drained the company’s account it had with the defunct UT Bank.
“If somebody wrote a cheque to UT Bank, the bank will not verify and go ahead to withdraw the money. There was one instance that I was told that we had money in our account but I didn’t know the account. So I issued a cheque for our accountant to go cash it. But then I had issued a prior directive to UT Bank prior notice that never again could they issue a cheque over the counter without calling me,”
“So the guy that I sent, went into the bank and he returned with the ten thousand dollar notes and then I went to the bank and raised hell and I later found out that we had an account with had almost forty thousand dollars in there.”
“In fact there was so much going on and even to the point that the MD himself arrested a whole corporate department; he took them to the BNI for interrogation of excessive money they had in their accounts with no trace,” he narrated.
Impact on Lushann’s operations
The unapproved transactions have been ongoing between 2014 and 2015 which obviously contributed to the woes of the Saltpond Oilfields.
This also means that Lushann energy is indebted to some of its suppliers which has become a burden to be cleared.
Lushann Energy has since started legal procedures to reclaim all the lost money.
UT Bank had its license revoked in August 2017 when the Bank of Ghana cited it for operating with low capital levels.
The denial by Lushann brings to two, the number of companies that have dismissed claims that their indebtedness to UT Bank partly accounted for the bank’s collapse.
Earlier, the lawyers for Engineers and Planners encompassing Dzata cement, clarified that the bank rather failed to fulfill its part of an agreement to provide credit facility for the construction of a cement factory.
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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana