{"id":111608,"date":"2026-01-18T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=111608"},"modified":"2026-01-18T04:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T04:00:00","slug":"no-evidence-of-theft-in-unibank-case-a%e2%80%91g-explains-withdrawal-of-charges-against-dr-duffour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=111608","title":{"rendered":"No evidence of theft in Unibank Case \u2013 A\u2011G explains withdrawal of charges against Dr Duffour"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 41 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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Attorney\u2011General and Minister for Justice Dr Dominic Akuritinga Ayine has provided a detailed account of why criminal charges earlier brought against former Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffour and other directors of the defunct Unibank Ghana Limited could not be sustained, insisting that investigations uncovered no evidence of theft or personal enrichment.<\/p>\n

Dr Ayine said public debate around the Unibank collapse had been shaped more by the prominence of the Duffour family than by the actual legal and evidential thresholds required to sustain criminal prosecution.<\/p>\n

According to him, when the cases arising from Ghana\u2019s financial sector clean\u2011up were reviewed, it became clear that Unibank\u2019s situation was fundamentally different from those of others, where criminal convictions were properly pursued.<\/p>\n

To illustrate the distinction, the Attorney\u2011General contrasted the Unibank matter with the prosecution of Capital Bank, where investigators uncovered what he described as unmistakable evidence of criminal conduct.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn the Capital Bank trial, there was evidence that whenever liquidity support was given by the Bank of Ghana, the former managing director dishonestly appropriated those funds,\u201d the Attorney\u2011General said on Starr Chat during an interview with broadcaster Bola Ray within the week.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He explained that prosecutors were able to trace how some of the liquidity support provided by the central bank was physically diverted for private use.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAccording to him, prosecutors presented evidence showing that some of the liquidity support was physically transported in a vehicle to a private garage at the managing director\u2019s residence, complete with geographic tracking of the movement of funds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cThat is pure stealing,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Dr Ayine said such direct evidence of dishonest appropriation made the Capital Bank case prosecutable and distinguishable from others arising from the banking sector reforms.<\/p>\n

Turning to Unibank, the Attorney\u2011General cautioned against equating bank failure with criminal liability, particularly where liquidity support was applied through normal banking channels.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf liquidity support is applied in accordance with normal banking rules and the bank still collapses, you cannot criminalise the conduct of the owners or directors simply because the risk did not pay off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He noted that risk\u2011taking lies at the heart of banking and that loan defaults and business failures, though undesirable, are not crimes in themselves.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou cannot turn around and say that because a bank received liquidity support and later failed, its directors must be prosecuted for causing financial loss to the state. It doesn\u2019t happen anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Dr Ayine said criminal law cannot be used to punish poor business judgement in the absence of dishonesty, fraud or theft.<\/p>\n

Responding to persistent public claims that Unibank\u2019s owners looted depositors\u2019 funds, the Attorney\u2011General was emphatic that investigators found no such evidence.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere was no evidence that the Duffours stole money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He also dismissed allegations of fraudulent breach of trust, explaining that under Ghanaian law, the relationship between a bank and its customers is contractual rather than fiduciary.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat is a fundamental principle of law. You cannot say there is a fraudulent breach of trust simply because depositors placed money in a bank and the bank extended loans that later failed,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On criticisms that Unibank granted loans to related or affiliated companies linked to its shareholders, Dr Ayine said such transactions, while potentially problematic from a regulatory or governance standpoint, do not automatically amount to criminal conduct.<\/p>\n

According to him, criminal liability would only arise where there is proof of dishonesty, diversion of funds or personal enrichment.<\/p>\n

The Attorney\u2011General said these legal realities ultimately informed the state\u2019s decision to discontinue criminal proceedings against Dr Duffour and other Unibank directors.<\/p>\n

He stressed, however, that the withdrawal of charges did not absolve the directors of all responsibility. Civil actions initiated by the bank\u2019s receiver remain ongoing, and asset recovery remains an available remedy.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI said they could either offer assets to cover part of the liability or go and stand trial. But I knew that eventually they would be acquitted because the evidence simply was not there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Dr Ayine reaffirmed that the Unibank case was never about theft or personal enrichment, a position he said he continues to defend despite public criticism.<\/p>\n

The clarification adds fresh perspective to the highly contentious financial sector clean\u2011up, which saw the revocation of licences of several banks and financial institutions, and continues to generate debate over accountability, justice and the limits of criminal law in regulating financial failure<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"NoAttorney\u2011General and Minister for Justice Dr Dominic Akuritinga Ayine has provided a detailed account of why criminal charges earlier brought against former Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffour and other directors of the defunct Unibank Ghana Limited<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2323,4864,15553,1951,1883,117,10,9,4235],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bank","category-duffour","category-financial-sector-collapse","category-hp-news-1","category-national","category-news","category-politics","category-popular","category-unibank"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}