The Office of the Attorney-General says it does not find any legal basis to have former Sanitation Minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, and her husband investigated for money laundering and structuring.
In a letter dated April 25 to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), which is currently investigating the former minister after the Special Prosecutor referred the case to that Office, Chief State Attorney, Evelyn Keelson said the docket submitted by the OSP did not disclose the basis for the offences.
“It is thus difficult to ascertain the basis for the OSP’s suspicion of the commission of the offence for money laundering and structuring by the suspects. A study of all documents on the docket submitted by the OSP does not disclose how the offence of money laundering and structuring might have been committed, as alleged by the OSP,” the State Attorney said in her advice to EOCO.
Read Also: OSP Drops Cases Against Cecilia Dapaah, Says EOCO Will Now Probe Money-Laundering Allegations
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The letter also alludes to a refusal by the OSP to submit findings of its 4-months long investigations with the FBI into Cecilia Dapaah’s overseas accounts.
“Neither are the ‘transboundary investigations’ conducted by the OSP stated in the OSP’s docket to you. We observe that by a letter dated Ist February 2024, you wrote to the OSP to furnish you with a copy of the findings on the case to facilitate your investigations. You inform us that, to date, the OSP has not responded to your request,” the letter stated.
The Attorney-General’s Office further advised that even though EOCO could continue the investigations, it finds it unnecessary since the police are already investigating domestic staff being prosecuted for the theft at the former minister’s home which led to the corruption probe by the OSP.
“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.”
Ms. Dapaah had been under investigation for seven months for suspected corruption and corruption-related offences after news broke in July 2023 about a theft by her domestic staff.
The workers were said to have stolen large sums of money – with many reports alleging amounts of $1 million, 300,000 euros, several millions of Ghana cedis, and personal effects, prompting an investigation by the Office of Special Prosecutor.
Earlier this year, the OSP discontinued her prosecution for suspected corruption, releasing all her accounts that were frozen as part of that probe, and later referring the case to EOCO as it did not have the mandate to investigate suspected money laundering.
The incident has however raised serious questions about the sources of her wealth – more so because many were shocked to learn that a minister was holding huge amounts of foreign currency to herself at home.
Read the full letter below:
