The Member of Parliament (MP) for Twifo Atti Morkwa in the Central Region, David Vondee, has been slapped with a bail condition of GH¢2 million by an Accra High court, presided over by Justice Mary Nsenkyire.
Mr Vondee, who is in parliament on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was arraigned before the court yesterday on charges of defrauding a private company to the tune of US$2.4 million.
However, the MP pleaded not guilty to the various counts of defrauding by false pretence contrary to Section 131 (1) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) and money laundering contrary to Section 1(2) (c) of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, Act 2020 (Act 1044).
His legal representative,Godwin EdudziTamakloe, prayed the court to grant his client bail,pending thesubstantive matter.
Mr Tamakloe urged the court to consider the bail application, since the accused person is an MP and had cooperated with the police handling the case, as well as he has no intention to jump bail if granted.
The court heard the prayer and granted the accused person bail to the sum of GH¢2 million with two sureties to be justified, with no objection from the prosecution.
She ordered the prosecution to file disclosures within two weeks and witness statements two weeks after that. She adjourned the case to June 30.
The crust of the matter
The facts of the case, as presented to the court by the Senior State Attorney, Vivian Osei Tutu, indicated that the complainant is one Kojo Ansah Mensah,who is the Director of Africa REI Ghana Limited.
Thus, somewhere in August 2015, the complainant on behalf of his company entered into an agreement with Klenam Construction Ltd, which Chief Executive Officer was David Vondee, to purchase 20 acres of land at Adentan-Frafrahato the cost of US$2,400,000.
According to her, the accused person at all material time gave assurance to officials of Africa REI Ghana Ltd that his company owned the said land and had all the necessary documents pointing to same.
The prosecutor added that due to this assurance, the Africa REI Ghana Ltdallegedly made a payment of US$2,400,000 to the accused and his company between August 2015 and July 2016.
The court has, however, told the court that Africa REI Ghana Ltd later realised that Klenam Construction Ltd had no title to the said land.
She added that on May 28, 2015 the accused person through his company sought to purchase about eighty acres of land from his grantors at a total cost of GH¢9,600,000. 00
Miss Tutu said the terms of the agreement required the accused to make an initial payment of GH¢1,600,000 to the grantors and to subsequently pay an amount of GH¢1,000,000 every three months till the agreed purchase price was fully paid.
The other terms of the agreement were that the MP’s company will be entitled to only a portion of land commensurate to the amount of money they had paid at the time, should the company fail not to make full payment at the end of the period.
The prosecutor went on to state that the MP, knowing very well that his company was unable to meet its financial obligations asthe grantors, hence had no title to any portion of the land, the accused proceeded to prepare an indenture covering the said land.
The Mr. Vondee allegedly presented a land title certificate number GA 44978 to the officials of Africa REI Ghana Ltd as evidence of his company’s ownership of the said land, even though there had been no valid registration of the land.
She said sometime in 2016, Mr Mensah lodged a complaint of fraud against the accused to the police, the accused attempted to settle the matter amicably by granting the complainant 10 acres of land as payment of the money taken from the complainant’s company.
Meanwhile, an official search at the Land’s Commission revealed the 10 acres of land did not belong to the accused or his company.
Interestingly, the MP allegedly admitted to the offence in his statement of collecting U$2.4 million from the complainant’s company in exchange for 20 acres of land, which he has not been able to deliver to Mr Mensah because he did not own the said land and did not have title to the land.
By Bernice Bessey & Wilhelmina Love Abanonave
The post NDC MP granted a GH¢2 million bail appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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