Banking Consultant, Nana Otuo Acheampong, has clarified that the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II could not have engaged in any act of money laundering considering the failure of any swift action over the allegation leveled against him.<\/p>\n
He explains that even though the deposits ordered by the traditional leader triggered a suspicion of money laundering, the inability of a subsequent investigation to conclude same defeats the arguments.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”lVzFOEW71fmviCF0uLWNjpRINZOpZS2S”]A UK-based A UK-based the Telegraph’s publication last week, said one Mark Arthur had alleged the Asantehene tasked him to deposit 350 thousand pounds into an account; under circumstances analysts have described as money laundering.<\/p>\n
Mr. Mark Arthur, who has lost his job at the Ghana International Bank, is contesting his dismissal at a Tribunal in the UK.<\/p>\n
The Tribunal has since deferred judgement to the next four weeks.<\/p>\n
But reacting to the issue, Nana Otuo Acheampong maintained that, the allegations against the traditional leader could not have been the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe documents I have in my possession doesn\u2019t testify to that; what it says is that, [Mark Arthur] got the money and enquired from the King the source, and he was told and went straight ahead to deposit it in the account. But then what he failed was to decide whether that was according to the Know Your Customer (KYC) rules or out of the ordinary or it was normal; but because the system was triggered, it showed that it was out of sink and that is why it was flagged up,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Nana Otuo also the Executive Director of the Osei Tutu II Centre for Executive Education and Research, further argued that the laws would have been triggered long in the matter had there been any grounds of truth in the case against the King.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder the UK anti-money laundering law, once the system has flagged a transaction, a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) would have to be filed and this was done. But subsequently nothing was found\u2026 If it was a money laundering issue, when they filed the SAR, something would have happened but up till date, nothing has happened.\u201d<\/p>\n