The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, has announced that the state will prosecute Wontumi Farms and its Directors for alleged financial crimes involving the Ghana Export-Import (EXIM) Bank.
Addressing journalists at the Government Accountability Series on Monday, December 22, 2025, Dr Ayine said investigations conducted by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) have uncovered sufficient evidence to support charges of defrauding by false pretences, forgery, and causing financial loss to the state.
Dr. Ayine explained that Bernard Antwi Boasiako, sole shareholder and a Director of Wontumi Farms, who is also the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the then governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), went for a loan facility to purchase some equipment and register them in the name of his Farms and the Bank.
However, he sought to forge a receipt to claim the facility from the bank without purchasing the said equipment as contained in the agreement.
He explained that: “Our investigations established that Chairman Wontumi had approached Kassama Enterprise, an industrial equipment dealer, and obtained an invoice with the promise to return to purchase the said equipment.”
According to the A-G, Wontumi “never went back to purchase the equipment. Instead, he forged the invoice he obtained from Kassama Enterprise, by removing the word “invoice” and replacing it with “receipt”. This forged receipt was then submitted to EXIM Bank as proof that he has purchased the equipment after the disbursement of the loan facility.”
Per their investigations, Dr. Ayine said it was further “established that Chairman Wontumi did not purchase any equipment, and as such could not register any equipment in the joint names of EXIM Bank and Wontumi Farms Ltd., as per the loan conditions, even though funds were disbursed to him to that effect.”
Wontumi’s act, in contract, Dr. Ayine averred, “constitutes acts of criminality.”
He asserted in addition that the Office of the Attorney-General and the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) have settled on prosecuting the Directors of the Farms for causing financial loss to the state and also defrauding the nation by false pretences.
“In the face of the evidence we have gathered in this investigation, thoroughly conducted by the EOCO, we have made the decision to prosecute Wontumi Farms and its Directors with defrauding by false pretense, forgery and causing financial loss to the state, in the sum of GHC24,255,735.00.”
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