Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine, has justified his office’s decision to discontinue the criminal case against former Finance Minister during the Atta-Mills Government, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor and other former executives of the defunct UniBank Ghana Limited.
The Attorney-General explained that after years of litigation and further reconciliation of the financial details at the heart of the case, it had become more prudent to pursue asset recovery through civil action than to chase uncertain criminal convictions.
Speaking at a press briefing in Accra on Monday, Dr Dominic Ayine revealed that a comprehensive reconciliation exercise, involving the Bank of Ghana, the Receiver of UniBank and the accused persons resulted in a significant reduction of the bank’s alleged indebtedness from an initial GH¢5.7 billion to GH¢3.3 billion, and eventually to GH¢2.8 billion as recognised by the High Court.
“The revised figure followed the removal of amounts that, upon further scrutiny, were either not directly related to the accused or were never actually disbursed,” the AG explained.
He noted, for example, that GH¢2.1 billion previously considered as part of the liabilities was merely fictitious entries and not backed by actual cash movements.
Another GH¢0.3 billion was associated with a sister company regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which was under liquidation and, therefore, not chargeable to the accused.
The Attorney-General emphasised that the charges of causing financial loss to the state and money laundering against the accused persons were not grounded in personal enrichment or theft, but rather in alleged mismanagement and regulatory breaches.
“What we had before us was not a case of someone stealing from a till, but complex financial decisions, many of which had documentation, audit trails and prior approval.
“The real question was: what is the best path forward for the State to recover lost funds and restore public confidence in the financial system?,” Dr Dominic Ayineasked
He noted that a substantial GH¢824 million worth of assets largely in the form of landed property had already been surrendered to the State by the accused. These assets, he stressed, were reflected in UniBank’s own books, countering claims that they were hidden or fraudulently acquired.
The Attorney-General also disclosed that on May 7, 2025 the accused persons submitted a formal proposal offering GH¢800 million in assets and committing to assist the State in recovering a further GH¢1.2 billion from third parties.
So far, GH¢500 million of that amount has been recovered, with efforts underway to retrieve the outstanding GH¢700 million within the next 18 months.
Dr. Duffuor and the other accused persons agreed to be liable for any shortfall should the recovered assets fall below the final reconciled value. “This is not an evasion of responsibility. It is a bold admission and commitment to settle any deficit after full realization of the properties,” the AG said.
He further explained that the Receiver’s inability to freeze assets when the matter first came up years ago allowed for some dissipation, complicating the possibility of full criminal recovery.
“In cases like this, time is critical. The longer you delay asset tracing, the more you lose. Our focus now is ensuring that the State is not left empty-handed,” he noted.
The Attorney General stressed that the approach his office had taken sets a new precedent in how the State handles financial crimes involving collapsed institutions.
He said that recovering over 60% of the reconciled value in 18 months is not only pragmatic, but far better than locking people up with no return of public funds.
“This isn’t about letting people go free. It’s about ensuring that justice, in its full sense, is served restitution, accountability, and systemic reform,” he added.
As the case shifts from the courtroom to asset realization and civil enforcement, it marks a major turning point in Ghana’s post-bank-collapse clean-up process.
Whether this signals a new model for future prosecutions or an exception to a rule remains to be seen.
Financial Analyst
A Financial Analyst who spoke to The Chronicle welcomed the Attorney-General’s detailed breakdown of the revised liability figures.
“The Attorney-General’s updated figure of GH¢3.3 billion coming after a June 2024 court-sanctioned revision of GH¢2.8 billion requested by the Receiver, confirms what many industry watchers have said for years that the original GH¢5.7 billion figure was significantly overstated,” the analyst observed.
The analyst emphasiSed that GH¢824 million in assets had already been handed over to the State and that these assets including trust-held properties were transparently captured in the bank’s general ledger. As such, allegations of concealment or misrepresentation appear to lack merit.
What he described as a “consequential acknowledgement” was the Attorney-General’s confirmation that contractors owed UniBank GH¢2.9 billion at the time of administration. Despite the bank submitting a proposal to recover these receivables, the plan was never implemented.
He believes this non-payment severely undermined the bank’s liquidity and ultimately contributed to its collapse.
“This moment offers an opportunity for institutional reflection. Transparent reconciliation, timely action, and clearer institutional coordination may have produced a very different outcome, one where an indigenous bank could have been preserved rather than dismantled,” the Financial Analyst remarked.
The post Ayine Justifies Decision To Free Duffuor & Others appeared first on The Ghanaian Chronicle.
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