FBI probes Cecilia Dapaah over assets, financial transactions

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States of America have initiated concurrent investigations into the activities of former Sanitation Minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah and her associates.

The OSP in a post on ‘X’ formerly Twitter on Wednesday indicated that “These investigations primarily focus on examining their assets and financial transactions within the United States of America.”

According to the OSP, the collaborative effort is to ascertain the lawfulness of Ms Dapaah and her associates’ wealth, “both in the context of their funds transitioning from Ghana to the United States and vice versa.”

Ms Dapaah came into the limelight in July when it emerged that two of her house helps were before an Accra Circuit Court, for allegedly stealing monies and items running into millions of Ghana Cedis.

She subsequently resigned from her position on July 22, 2023, after intense calls from the public.

Meanwhile, the former Sanitation Minister has filed an interlocutory injunction application against the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) in an attempt to stop the Office from investigating and prosecuting her and her husband, Daniel Osei Kufuor on charges of suspected corruption and corruption-related offences.

Courts documents available to citinewsroom.com indicate that the former Minister is also praying the court to compel the OSP to unfreeze her bank accounts.

She is praying the court to also declare the reseizure of monies found in her Abelemkpe residence and the refreezing of her bank accounts as unfair and capricious.

“A Declaration that the Respondent’s re-seizure of the money (initially seized from the Applicant’s home on 24/07/23) and re-freezing of Applicant’s bank accounts respectively on 5th September 2023 is unfair, unreasonable, capricious, arbitrary, and ultra vires the Respondent’s statutory powers under Act 959 relative to the constitutional provisions of Articles 23 and 296 of the Constitution, 1992.”

Madam Dapaah’s lawyers are also seeking the court to issue “an Order prohibiting the Respondent from continuing the investigation of the Applicant and her husband for corruption or corruption-related offences.”

Court documents filed by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) in September disclosed that Madam Dapaah used aliases to conceal transactions from undeclared real estate business and other transactions to justify the reseizure and refreezing of her bank account.

But the former Minister described the claims as misleading.