Ghana's ex-finance minister, 12 others sued for missing $1.2 bn

Ghana’s former Finance Minister Kwabena Duffuor and 12 others are facing a $1.2 billion suit over funds that went missing during their tenure as shareholders and directors of the now defunct Unibank Ghana Ltd.

Auditing firm KPMG, which is the receiver for Unibank after the lender’s license was revoked in August, is asking the High Court in Accra to declare loans, advances and asset purchases made by certain shareholders and their related interests as unlawful.

The woes of the owners of the defunct uniBank Ghana Limited, are far from over, as KPMG, the Receiver of the collapsed bank, has sued the founder of the bank, Dr Kwabena Duffuor and 16 others to… https://t.co/x2ySlFjXV5

— NewswireGH (@newswiregh) September 6, 2018

Duffuor founded Unibank in 2001 after serving for four years as governor of the central bank and was appointed finance minister by former President John Atta Mills in 2009, a post he held until 2012.

Ghana’s Central Bank placed Unibank under administration in March before revoking its license as it declared the lender “beyond rehabilitation.”

Kwabena Duffuor, 16 others sued; to cough up ¢5bn of uniBank cash https://t.co/94FtiU9d0A pic.twitter.com/qgOFUkqaQt

— MiMGhana.com (@MiMGhana) September 5, 2018

Ghana is cleaning up its banking industry as the regulator is implementing reforms to improve governance and the capital adequacy of lenders.

The holdings of Unibank and four other failing lenders were transferred to the newly created state-owned Consolidated Bank Ghana Ltd. while the country issued over a $1.2 billion bond to bridge the gap between their liabilities and good assets.

Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, his son and over 10 others sued for their roles in the collapse of uniBank #BankofGhana

— Isaac Essel (@IsaacEssel) September 5, 2018