$190k fraud …Oppong-Kyekyeku in cells again after jail term for similar scam

THE CHIEF Executive Officer of Luxury World Auto Group Limited, Charles Oppong-Kyekyeku, has been dragged to a Circuit Court in Accra after Police investigations confirmed he had forged a $189,982.00 worth proforma invoice in the name of a foreign company and also fraudulently inflated the amount of money stated on the original invoice.

The fraudulent invoice had figures that exceeded that of the original genuine invoice but it was presented by Charles Oppong-Kyekyeku for official financial transaction as though it was legitimate, genuine and authentic.

The original invoice submitted by the company, Al Amani Spare Parts LLC, a United Arab Emirates based company that had some business transactions in Ghana, was $130,910,00 but Oppong-Kyekyeku was found to have forged another proforma invoice of dubious validity and purpose and inflated the amount on the fake invoice to $189,982.00.

Mr. Oppong-Kyekyeku, before being processed for court was arrested over the suspected crime and officially charged before he was granted bail. He was unable to fully meet the bail terms and therefore had to sleep at the Cantonments Police Station until the requisite conditions were met.

He is said to have also been involved in the forgery of the brand logo, letter head and official document of Al Amani and put the newly inflated amount of $ 189,982.00 on it.

The accused was also found to have used the fraudulent proforma invoice for the procurement of goods through Fidelity Bank East Legon branch for which an Import Declaration Form (IDF) was generated by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

Background

Investigations established that in March 2020, Oppong-Kyekyeku’s company was given a contract from the Government of Ghana to supply spare parts to Ghana Ambulance Services.

The accused then commenced the necessary process to buy the spare parts from AL Amani Spare L.L.C. for onward delivery to the Ghana Government.

As part of the procurement processes, the Dubai based company, AL Amani received a purchase order from Mr. Oppong-Kyekueku’s company in Ghana for supply of spare parts.

AL Amani, in response to the purchase order, then sent a proforma invoice with a total figure amounting to $130,910,00 via email to Mr. Oppong-Kyekyeku’s company, Luxury World.

Investigations have revealed however that , Mr. Oppong-Kyekyeku after receiving the original proforma invoice from Al Amani, uttered and falsified the proforma invoice and inflated the amount to $ 189,982.00.

Mr. Oppong-Kyekyeku then caused the faked proforma invoice to be used for the procurement of goods through Fidelity Bank East Legon branch for which an Import Declaration Form (IF) was generated by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

A case was reported to the Police which led to the arrest of Mr. Oppong-Kyekyeku.

During investigation, Mr. Oppong-Kyekyeku declined to speak on the issue.

Request was sent to the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) to contact and verify the authenticity of otherwise of the proforma invoice with a total face value of USD 189,982.00 from AL Amani and the response from Financial Intelligence Centre indicated that the proforma invoice presented by Mr. Oppong-Kyekyeku was forged, after thorough investigations, the he was charged and processed for court.

MORE FOGGERY

This is not the first time Charles Oppong-Kyekyeku is being investigated for forgery as he had once been jailed for some three years for fake invoices totaling an amount of £245,000.

The judge in that case, Judge Georges Khayat QC, described Charles Oppong-Kyekyeku as “a thoroughly dishonest person”.

Mr. Charles Oppong-Kyekyeku was not only convicted into custodial sentence but was also disqualified from being the director of any company for a period of eight (8) years.

In the said case that got Charles Oppong-Kyekyeku into jail, he was found guilty of having presented some fake invoices totalling an amount of £245,000 over a period of two years.

He was said to have obtained illegally and processed secretly his unclean money via through his UK Star Security company in East Ham, East London and also wired some good amount of money outside the UK.

For some reasons, Charles Oppong-Kyekyeku initially jumped bail and as believed to have fled to Ghana.

But he subsequently showed up to serve his term.

The New Publisher has unraveled startling revelations about Charles Oppong-Kyekyeku and his current business dealings in Ghana and the paper has therefore set up an investigative desk in the newsroom, exclusively for his dealings.