OSP reveals that Cecilia Dapaah employs aliases to hide transactions from undisclosed real estate business
Court documents submitted by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) have unveiled that the former Sanitation Minister, Cecilia Dapaah, utilized aliases to obscure transactions linked to her undisclosed real estate business.
According to the documents, the OSP’s criminal intelligence indicated that while serving as a Minister of State, Cecilia Dapaah engaged in an undisclosed real estate venture in which she concealed transactions by adopting aliases to avoid detection of the true ownership of the properties.
She was alleged to have artfully channeled the proceeds of these transactions into her bank accounts and investments.
Furthermore, the OSP’s document revealed suspicions about unexplained large sums of money found at her residence, which significantly exceeded her income as a Minister of State.
The investigation suggested that her house-helps may have been involved in embezzling part of these funds through theft.
The OSP’s report noted, “There are no financial records and traces of the origin(s) of the money reportedly stolen from the residence of the respondents and the money discovered by the OSP at said residence. Further, there is no evidence of the amounts of money having been derived from any legitimate businesses, profession or vocation, and no evidence of said amounts having been lawfully declared and subjected to any statutory payments.”
“During the search conducted in her presence, the first respondent disavowed and claimed no knowledge of the presence of the said cash sums in the residence. The conduct of the first respondent, being a public officer, heightened the suspicion of the authorised officers of the OSP that the cash sums were tainted property.”
Cecilia Dapaah had previously faced a freezing order on her Cedi and Dollar bank accounts by the OSP, which was subsequently overturned by the High Court. However, the OSP invoked its authority to regain custody of the funds following the court’s ruling.
