EOCO Investigator Drops Bombshell in Adu-Boahene Trial

An investigator in the ongoing criminal trial of former Director-General of the National Signals Bureau (NSB), Kwabena Adu-Boahene, has disclosed before the Accra High Court that the cyber defence system for which GH¢49.1 million was paid was never delivered to the state.

The revelation was made by Frank Marshall Cromwell, a staff officer of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and lead investigator in the case, while testifying under examination by the Deputy Attorney General.

According to Mr. Cromwell, investigations established that on January 30, 2020, Adu-Boahene, acting in his capacity as Director of the NSB, signed an international contract on behalf of the Government of Ghana with Israeli firm ISC Holdings Limited for the procurement of a cyber defence system.

The court heard that GH¢49.1 million was subsequently transferred from the NSB’s account to an account named BNC Communications Limited–Operations, purportedly for the execution of the contract.

However, investigations revealed that the account belonged to a private company allegedly owned and controlled by Adu-Boahene and his wife.

Mr. Cromwell testified that only GH¢9,537,500, equivalent to US$1.75 million, was transferred from the account to ISC Holdings, with no further payments made thereafter.

Detailing the movement of the funds, the investigator told the court:

“The Bank records show that from the time the GH¢49.1 million was lodged into BNC Communications Bureau-Operations Bank account, A1 on February 6, 2020, made a bank transfer of the sum of GH¢9,537,500, equivalent to $1,750,000 to ISC Holdings.

“No further payments were made to ISC Holdings from this account. A1 then went on a spending spree, making substantial cash withdrawals from the account for personal purposes.

“This continued until the account was depleted, after which he instructed the Bank to close the account and transfer any remaining funds to A4, a company of his.”

The investigator further testified that despite the expenditure of the GH¢49.1 million, the cyber defence system at the centre of the transaction was never supplied to the NSB.

“Our investigation established that ISC Holdings Limited did not deliver the cyber defence system to the NSB, and that NSB does not have the cyber defence system in its inventory.”

Adu-Boahene, together with his wife, Angela Boateng, and Advantage Solutions Limited (ASL), is facing trial over allegations that GH¢49 million earmarked for the acquisition of cybersecurity software for the government was misappropriated.

The prosecution alleges that the funds were channelled through a network of companies before ultimately ending up in ASL and were subsequently used to acquire properties in Accra, Kumasi and London.

The case has been adjourned for the continuation of proceedings.