SIX employees of the Federated Commodities Limited (FEDCO), a private cocoa purchasing company, are standing trial at an Accra Circuit Tribunal for allegedly embezzling about ?583 million belonging to their employers.
The accused persons are Samuel Twum Afrifa, Emmanuel Allen Nkuah, Francis Kwaku Okyere, Winfred David Yaw Amoah, all cocoa marketing officers and Aaron Inkoom and Kwasi Nti, purchasing clerks.
They have all been charged on two counts of conspiracy and stealing.
Afrifa, Inkoom and Nti pleaded not guilty to the charges and the tribunal, chaired by Mr. Imoru Ziblim, granted Afrifa bail in the sum of ?50 million with one surety to be justified while Inkoom and Nti were remanded in custody.
They are to re-appear on August 1, this year.
The tribunal issued bench warrants for the arrest of Allen Nkuah, Kwaku Okyere and Yaw Amoah.
Inspector E. T. Boison told the tribunal that the complainant is the Administrative Manger of the company with its head office in Accra while Afrifa, Nkuah, Okyere and Amoah are all district marketing officers and represent the company at Asempanaye, Essem, Juaboso and Kaase, all in the Western Region.
He said during the 1999-2000 main cocoa season, the first four accused persons received a total of ?18,288,140,625 through the Sector Manager, Mr. Fosu Adarkwa from the Head and Operations Manager of the company as advance towards the purchase of 130,049 bags of dried cocoa beans.
According to the prosecutor, the amount was part of seed money given to individual or private companies by COCOBOD every season.
Inspector Boison said at the end of the purchasing season, the management of FEDCO realised that Afrifa, Nkuah, Okyere and Amoah have dishonestly appropriated ?164,953,125, ?150,046,875, ?116,578,128 and ?105,468,750 respectively.
According to Inspector Boison, further investigations by the management into the matter revealed that on March 3, this year, Amoah also conspired with Inkoom and Nti to embezzle ?28 million belonging to the company.
He said during interrogation, Afrifa and Okyere refunded ?25.5 million and ?12.5 million respectively.
