Three arrested over GH¢90,000 fraud case

Page 3: September 6, 2008.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THREE directors of the Sea Rock Travels and Tours Limited have been arrested by the police for allegedly swindling the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) to the tune of GH¢90,000.
Rajesh Mirwani, Naresh Lachand Mirwani and Lachand D. Mirwani, are currently on bail while two other suspects, identified as Fidel Ribeiro alias Sekyere and Miguel Augustus Ribeiro, are currently on the run.
A source at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters in Accra told the Daily Graphic yesterday that Rajesh, Naresh and Fidel went to the bank in September last year for a loan to augment the operations of their company, Sea Rock Travels and Tours Limited.
It said as part of the requirements, the applicants presented a legal mortgage over a building property situated at Adabraka in Accra, among others, as collateral based on documents and a purported statutory declaration using documents covering the landed property that belonged to Miguel Augustus Ribeiro.
The source explained that Fidel, who is a friend of the Indians, introduced Miguel Ribeiro as an uncle who owned the property at Adabraka.
According to the source, the GH¢90,000 granted to the applicants was to be paid over a 12-month period with 25 per cent interest.
It said repayment of the loan should have started in October 2007 but the applicants failed to do so.
It said the bank later detected that the beneficiaries had closed down their offices at Osu since November 2007 and could not be traced.
The source said the bank attempted to execute the mortgage presented to the bank as collateral but were informed that the documents were fake.
Moreover, the bank was informed that the actual Miguel Augustus Ribeiro who owned the property died in 1995, for which evidence of his obituary and other documents were shown to the bank officials.
It said the bank was informed that Fidel was not known in the family neither was he the executor of the estate of the late Miguel Augustus Ribeiro.
It said when the bank lodged a complaint with the police, Rajesh, Naresh and Lachand were arrested while efforts to apprehend Fidel and the purported Ribeiro had failed.
The source, therefore, appealed to any member of the public who knew the whereabouts of Fidel to notify the nearest Police Station or the Commercial Crime Unit of the CID headquarters.