AN INVESTMENT banker has found himself in the grip of the law for allegedly defrauding a chartered accountant to the tune of GH�182,500 under the pretext of supporting him to purchase 25,000 metric tonnes of sugar.
Moses Mossrich has been charged at an Accra Circuit Court where he pleaded not guilty to defrauding by false pretences.
The court was presided over by Audrey Kocuvie-Tay who refused the plea by counsel for the accused requesting bail for his client, explaining the only thing she could do to help the accused person was to let him to pay the entire amount involved in the case which is over �1.8 billion.
She therefore reminded Mossrich into custody and adjourned the case to March 30, 2012.
Chief Inspector Chester, the prosecuting officer told the court that somewhere in August 2009, the complainant William Quartey, a chartered accountant decided to purchase 25,000 metric tonnes of sugar worth $9million.
He said the complainant therefore approached Mossrich Company Ltd, a firm belonging to the accused person to raise a financial instrument for the business.
�After all the negotiations, the complainant was made to pay various sums of money totaling GH�182,500 for the financial instrument or letters of credit to the Stanbic Bank account number 0240030648601 of Mossrich whilst the money was converted by Stanbic Bank and transferred into two private company accounts namely Finance Asia Ltd and Shoba with account numbers 81036926 and 62410137995 respectively.�
Chief Inspector Chester stated further that the purported letters of credit were issued to the supplier�s bank in Spain namely Banco Espanyo Du Credito by Dubia Bank of Kenya instead of Standard Chartered Bank of New York, USA.
He said when the letters of credit were presented to the supplier bank it was rejected and dishonored as null and void.
�In view of all these problems, the complainant made strenuous and frantic efforts to retrieve his GH�182,500 from the accused person but he vehemently refused to pay him and went into hiding,� prosecution told the court.
The prosecuting officer said the complainant consequently reported the matter to police and the accused was traced and arrested at his hideout and charged with the offence.
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