Ex-SFO man in trouble*Allegedly steals GH¢360,000 belonging to a businessman

Front Page: May 30, 2008.
Story: Albert K. Salia
A FORMER official of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), George Hackman Otoo, has been arrested for allegedly stealing GH¢360,000 belonging to a businessman.
The suspect is also the Executive Consultant of Spotlight Consultancy Limited, a private investigations company and acquaintance of the victim.
The Executive Director of the SFO, Mr Theophilus Cudjoe, confirmed to the Daily Graphic that Otoo was a former employee of that organisation.
The Head of the Commercial Crime Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Superintendent Yaa Tiwah Danso, told the Daily Graphic yesterday that the vigilance of a witness led the police to arrest the suspect.
She said Otoo, who claimed to be a criminologist, led a team of five persons, including a white man and another person in police uniform, in a hired Toyota Landcruiser, with registration number GS 5597 Y, to the office of the victim, Mr Lula Dulani, an Indian, claiming to be from INTERPOL.
She said Otoo waited in the Landcruiser while the purported policeman in uniform and the white man intercepted the money at the doorstep of the victim’s company in Accra and asked that the owner of the money should report at the CID Headquarters for further investigations.
But, since Mr Dulani did not know that Otoo was part of the team that had come for his money, he (Dulani) immediately called Otoo, whom he already knew as a security consultant, to assist in the investigations to retrieve his money.
Supt Danso said checks on the ownership of the vehicle led the police to arrest Otoo, who had gone to hire it from a car rental company in Accra for the operation.
She said although Otoo admitted hiring the vehicle, he alleged that he gave it to a white man, whom he initially identified only as Ralph.
Supt Danso said further investigations by the police revealed that after returning the vehicle to the rental company, Otoo kept on finding out from the company whether there had been any contacts from anybody to find out who had hired it.
According to her, Otoo later sent photocopies of American and British passports to the rental company to use as information on the persons who had hired the vehicle.
Supt Danso said investigations by the police also revealed that three days after stealing the money, there was some money transfers to a joint account Otoo held with another person in Sierra Leone.
She said it was later detected that at the time of the transfer, Otoo had also travelled to Sierra Leone.
Supt Danso said when Otoo was finally arrested, he led the police on a wild goose chase of his white friend.
He has since appeared before court and been remanded in prison custody.