A trail of evidence and unwitting attempts to cover their tracks have exposed the intricate deceit by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and President Akufo Addo’s cousin, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko concerning the fact that the entire shady Agyapa Royalty deal was directly hatched under the auspices of Mr. Ofori-Atta through his investment firm Data Bank Financial Services.
It was Data Bank, through a front company in South Africa called Imara Corporate Finance (PTY) Limited that handed the juicy legal advisory role in Agyapa to Gabby’s legal firm African Legal Services and not through its association with the UK-based White and Case law firm which the Finance Minister and Gabby claim were the bonafide legal advisors to the deal.
Whatsup News has intercepted the single most important smoking gun that squarely points to the fact that Mr. Ofori-Atta through his South African associates distributed the goodies of the Agyapa deal to family members and friends of President Akufo Addo-his uncle.
Indeed, perhaps forgetting that he and the Finance Minister had earlier claimed the Africa Legal Services secured the multi-million dollar legal advisory contract Agyapa by dint of its association with the UK-based White and Case, Mr. Otchere Darko’s lawyer Kissi Agyabeng, in an attempt to flak the Herald Newspaper for misinformation, wrote: “It would have also revealed that the international law firm did not outsource legal work to Africa Legal Associates on the Agyapa Royalties Limited transaction. But that Africa Legal Associates was engaged by Imara Corporate Finance (Pty) Limited,” Gabby’s lawyers wrote to Herald Newspaper.
“It would have also revealed that the international law firm did not outsource legal work to Africa Legal Associates on the Agyapa Royalties Limited transaction. But that Africa Legal Associates was engaged by Imara Corporate Finance (Pty) Limited,” Gabby’s lawyers wrote to the Herald.
However, earlier in an interview with Asempa late August 2020, Gabby has given a totally different explanation. He told his interviewer: “International Lawyers or firms have local partners and that is how my firm came in”. According to him, his firm works with White and Case and since the UK-based law firm won the bid to be transaction advisors to the Agyapa deal, it was natural that Gabby’s law firm represents its UK partners.
“We work with them…we are partners and we do a lot of work. It is common, it is not as if Charles Adu Boahene or Ken Ofori-Atta sat somewhere and handed us the project,” Gabby said. However, this is exactly what happened because an intercepted mandate agreement between Ken Ofori-Atta and the South Africa-based Imara PTY shows that It was Ken Ofori-Atta’s Databank that mandated Imara to contract both White and Case and Gabby’s law firms separately and not because Gabby’s law firm was working as an associate of White and Case.
In one of his rare interviews with Peace FM’s Kwame Sefa Kayi, Ken Ofori-Atta sought to maintain the cover-up narrative when he said “This transaction is with Bank of America which is the main transaction advisor. They have a group of lawyers they work with and they work with an international law firm in London called White and Case. Usually, this international law firms have affiliates and associates in Ghana and that’s where Gabby’s law firm happens to be an associate.”
The Finance Minister created the impression that he was not involved in the day-to-day activities of Databank, “I don’t sit on the board [of Databank]” he said.
On Wednesday, September 30, 2020, Whatsup News published contents of an intercepted mandate agreement between Imara and Databank, signed at the Finance Ministry, where Mr. Ofori-Atta happens to be the minister. The agreement dated April 30, 2020, saw Imara and Databank explicitly agreeing that Imara Finance would represent the interest of Databank, a company belonging to the Finance Minister who is incidentally the main champion of the Agyapa deal.
The agreement essentially proved that Ken Ofori-Atta used his privileged position at the Finance Ministry to contract the Agyapa Royalties transaction advisory contract to himself.
That advisory service resulted in Ghana’s entire mineral royalties being passed through a secret conduit in a notorious tax haven in Jersey of the British Channel Islands.
The transaction has been flagged by several international fraud watchdog organisations such as the Tax Justice Network. Also, it has been revealed that the future value of the mineral funds passed through Agyapa Royalties have been deliberately undervalued. Both the Economist Magazine and Ghanaians policy think-tank IMANI Africa thinks that the future value of the royalties should be at least US$ 2.5 billion instead of the US$1 billion being quoted by Ofori-Atta’s Finance Ministry.
The agreement between Databank and Imara commenced on May, 1, 2018, just about the same time the Act for the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) ACT, 2018 (ACT 978) was being concluded but was extended when the “transaction did not conclude”.
“The Mandate Agreement therefore expires again on 1st May 2020, but to date, the transaction [Agyapa/Asaase Royalties deal] remains un-concluded and the Parties desirous of continuing and concluding their relationship and the transaction under the Mandate Agreement as though it has never expired, have agreed to further amend and extend the Mandate Agreement…,” the clandestine document intercepted by Whatsup News states.
For fronting for him, Mr. Ofori-Atta arm-twists the Finance Ministry to pay for out-of-pocket expenses incurred by Imara since 2018. Imara is paid some US$4,000 monthly for these personal expenses.
For instance, Clause 3.3 of the proxy agreement between Databank and Imara states: “MoF [Ministry of Finance] will be required to reimburse the Transaction Advisors [Imara and Databank] for all reasonable and documented out-of-pocket expenses necessary for the Transaction Advisors.” It goes ahead to then cite some payments, including US$50,000 paid from May 2018 to April 2019. MoF also paid Imara US$20,000 from May to December 2019.
Afterwards, Ken Ofori-Atta’s Databank also contracted the law firm of the infamous lawyer, Ace Annan Ankoma- Bentsi-Enchil Letsa & Ankomah (BELA) to work on the transaction in a tight web of conflict of interest by close relatives of President Akufo Addo.
The triangle around President Akufo Addo that set up the questionable Asaase/Agyapa also involves President Akufo Addo’s close family members and friends, in what has created suspicions that the President himself may be in on the deal.
The MIIF is seeking to give over 75% of Ghana’s mineral royalties to Agyapa Royalties, a company whose true background has become a closely guarded secret by the Finance Minister.
Already, the Akufo Addo administration has been fingered to have systematically hatched the plot to hijack Ghana’s mineral royalties of almost US$200 million annually.
Whatsup News can report that President Akufo chaired the cabinet meetings that initiated the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) ACT, 2018 (ACT 978). Consequently, the legislation birthed a special Fund headed by George Mireku Duker who was directly appointed by President Akufo Addo.
In turn, the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) idea to ship the country’s mining royalties through the notorious tax haven was reportedly hatched by the President’s cousin and Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta who went ahead to commission Imara to contract companies belonging to his family members and friends of President Akufo Addo.
Investigations by Whatsup News at the Registrar-General’s Department indicates that the supposed subsidiary of Agyapa/Asaase Royalties called ARG Royalties Limited had its first CEO and director named as Yaw Baah, while Agyapa’s CEO is the son of President Akufo Addo’s bosom friend, Yaw Osafo Marfo, who is incidentally Ghana’s Senior Minister.
Mr. Yaw Baah, a lawyer who lived in the UK, is a Senior Research Fellow at the Danquah Institute (DI) founded by Gabby Asare-Otchere Darko. He also worked closely in the research department of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s 2016 campaign.
Again, checks reveal that another director of ARG Royalties is called Felicia Ashley. She was the Vice President and Head of Human Capital and Administration at Ken Ofori-Atta’s Databank. Ms Ashley was later moved to the Finance Ministry headed by Mr. Ofori-Atta to be the Head of General Administration of the Ministry of Finance.
This closely-knit triangle linked to the Presidency and Finance Minister Ofori-Atta has reinforced agitations from Ghanaians that the “Family and Friends Mafia” and the “Akyem Sakawa Boys” at the Jubilee House have indeed completely appropriated Ghana’s multi-million funds from gold and other mined minerals for themselves.