PHOTO: Lebanese In Bank Scam

A 54-year-old Lebanese, Ahmed Ali Ibrahim, has been arrested by INTERPOL officials at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters for bank fraud. The suspect and his compatriot, Najib Arnaout, almost succeeded in a GH�6.64 million attempted bank fraud. While Najib was immediately arrested after the detection of the crime, Ahmed Ibrahim succeeded in leaving the shores of Ghana to his home country when he heard about his accomplice�s fate, abandoning a rented vehicle at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA). Ahmed was arrested on May 31, when he attempted to re-enter the country through the Togo border. According to the Director General of CID, DCOP Prosper Agblor, Najib Arnaout is the Managing Director of a Ghanaian firm, Badza Company Limited, whilst Ahmed Ali Ibrahim is the Chief Executive Officer of Rah-Latraco, a company which he claimed exports charcoal from Ghana to Lebanon. Sometime in September last year, the two suspects conspired to defraud one of the banks in the country by forging Internal Debit Vouchers in the name of three corporate customers of the said bank under the pretext that the said customers were paying them a contract fee to the tune of GH�6,640,000. Badza Company Ltd�s account was subsequently credited with the said amount. Prior to this, Najib Arnaout and Ali Ibrahim had opened accounts with four other banks in Accra for the scam. The suspects then instructed the said bank to transfer the amount into the three other accounts they had opened. On October 1, 2010, the suspects successfully withdrew an amount of GH�35,000 from the Badza Company account which was part of the GH�6,640,000. On October 4, 2010, the suspects made another attempt to withdraw all the deposits from the three receiving banks, but the lid was blown off the deal. Suspect Najib Arnaout was immediately arrested at one of the banks but Ahmed Ali Ibrahim, on hearing of Najib�s arrest, drove straight from wherever he was to the Airport and flew to Lebanon, abandoning a rented car that he was using at the KIA. The police then took the necessary steps to arrest him by circulating details about him through INTERPOL and other local security agencies at the various entry points. Luck eluded suspect Ahmed when he attempted to re-enter the country through Lome. He was captured at the Aflao border. DCOP Prosper Agblor said the two would be arraigned after investigations are completed.