It appears the woes of the failed Power Distribution Services (PDS) is far from over as the CEO of one its local partners have been slapped with a GHC 2.2 million suit by a real estate developer.
Santa Baron Ventures Limited owned by one Kwabena Boateng Aidoo has been sued for “unlawfully and unjustly holding onto money that does not belong to it,” the suit filed at the Accra High Court on May 21, 2020 claims.
According to the suit filed by one Winfred Kumah Apawu, Santa Baron has been owning the amount for over seven years now.
In his statement of claim, Mr. Apawu said he has been chasing the Santa Baron and its CEO since 2012 after he had deposited the said amount in the accused’s CAL Bank account.
The plaintiff, who is an estate developer, said he had been approached by Chris Hesse-Tetteh (Second Plaintiff in the suit) to buy a 2.73 acres land from him at South Legon in Accra.
However, at the time, Hesse had wanted to transfer the agreed sum into a CAL Bank Account but Mr. Apawu had no account with Cal Bank.
He subsequently approached his acquaintance and owner of Santa Baron to take custody of the money in his Cal Bank account temporarily.
According to the suit, after Kwabena Boateng Aidoo agreed to allow his company’s account to be used in September 2012, he has refused to release the money till date.
Santa Baron was one of the local companies allegedly inserted into the US$ 500 million deal to manage the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
The deal fell through when it turned out that the local partners, including Santa Baron had secured a fraudulent financing arrangement in Qatar.
The deal was part of the American Millennium Challenge Account compact to pump US$500 million into ECG to revamp it.
America was forced to pull out when the fraud was detected in the PDS deal.