<<Print>>

The Accra Fast Track High Court has issued a bench warrant for the arrest of the former Managing Director of the National Investment Bank (NIB), Mr. Daniel Charles Gyimah. The arrest order Thursday, according to Daily Graphic's court correspondent Mabel Aku Baneseh, follows Mr. Gyimah�s absence in court where he is facing charges of wilfully causing financial loss to the state. Gyimah, who is on a GH�500,000 bail bond has pleaded not guilty to wilfully causing financial loss of 60 million dollars to the state. He is alleged to have used the bank as a guarantor without the Board of Directors� consent and issued 30 promissory notes valued at 60 million dollars in May, 2007 to a private business, Eland International (Ghana) Limited. Background to case The plaintiff, Dominion Corporate Trustees Limited, through its lawyer, Nene Amegatcher, sued the NIB, Eland International Ghana Limited and Mr Gyimah on March 4, 2010, claiming the sum of US$60 million guaranteed by the bank. By a collateral management agreement dated November 10, 2001, the NIB and Eland International Ghana entered into a binding agreement under which Eland International would order and supply Eland International Ghana Limited with various commodities from abroad on credit. Under the arrangement, the NIB was to hold the commodities in bond, regulate their sale and put the money realised from the sale in an escrow account which was created and controlled by the NIB and then later remit to Eland International Limited. As a follow up to the 2001 agreement, the NIB, acting through Mr Gyimah, on May 7, 2007 guaranteed, per Aval, 30 promissory notes issued by Eland International to facilitate the said agricultural projects. However, by the terms of the Aval guarantee, the plaintiff was entitled, upon maturity of the notes, to claim its value directly from the NIB without recourse to Eland International Ghana Limited. Accordingly, in January 2009, the plaintiff contacted Ghana International Bank, which was the NIB�s correspondent bank in the United Kingdom, and requested for the payment of the sum of US$60 million being the maturity value of the notes. Unfortunately, the request was not honoured, resulting in the plaintiff following up by making demands directly on the NIB, only to be told that NIB had no knowledge whatsoever of the existence of the notes or the guarantee granted on its behalf by Mr Gyimah. The plaintiff resorted to a court action on March 4, 2010 after its repeated demands yielded no results.