Thursday, 28 March

Return to arbitration: Court orders BoG, uniBank shareholders

Business
BoG uniBank

The Bank of Ghana has been ordered by an Accra High Court to return to the arbitration table with shareholders of the now-defunct uniBank over the revocation of the latter’s licence in 2018.

The High Court also directed the two parties to choose their own arbitrator in the matter.

The court ruling comes after the appointed arbitrator, Retired Supreme Court judge, Prof Date-Baah, decided not to arbitrate the matter.

The court ruled that the decision not to arbitrate goes beyond the mandate of the retired judge and, therefore, asked the parties to return to the table.

The motion said the processes leading to the formation of Consolidated Bank Ghana were fraught with gross violations of the relevant laws of Ghana, especially the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930) and the Companies Act of 1963 (Act 179).

The 17 shareholders in paragraph 15 of their motion also alleged that KPMG misled the Ministry of Finance to transfer large volumes of public funds to establish the new bank instead of just honouring their verified financial obligations to uniBank in order for the bank to continue running as a private entity.

The shareholders of uniBank are challenging the decision by the regulator to revoke the licence of the bank.

They claim the erroneous report by KPMG formed the basis for the revocation of the bank’s licence and its good assets handed over to the Consolidated Bank Ghana.

Already, the 17 shareholders of uniBank have been charged with 68 counts of fraudulent breach of trust, money laundering, dishonestly receiving funds and falsification of accounts.

 

 

Source: classfmonline.com