Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, has been arraigned on a new charge sheet in the Exim Bank Loan Case, in which he is standing trial alongside Thomas Antwi-Boasiako and Wontumi Farms Limited over an alleged GH¢30 million loss to the Ghana Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank).
The new charge sheet, filed on September 22, 2026, contains five counts: defrauding by false pretence, two counts of uttering a forged document, money laundering, and intentionally causing financial loss to a public body.
According to the charge sheet, the accused persons allegedly obtained approximately GH¢14.302 million from Exim Bank in 2018 by false pretences. The prosecution further alleges that their actions caused the bank to suffer a financial loss of GH¢30 million between 2018 and 2022.
The prosecution’s case is that, in January 2018, Chairman Wontumi presented documents to Exim Bank to secure a loan for a proposed farming project. The documents were subsequently found, upon investigation, to have been forged and altered.
Investigations allegedly established that the accused persons did not undertake the proposed farming project. They neither acquired agricultural plant and machinery nor employed workers for the farm. The prosecution also alleges that they did not own or secure the parcel of land they represented to the bank as having been secured for the project.
Further investigations allegedly established that Chairman Wontumi withdrew substantial sums of the loan proceeds from bank accounts belonging to Wontumi Farms Limited, the third accused person, and used the funds for personal purposes, including investments in other business enterprises.
Chairman Wontumi pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
The prosecution has been given 14 days to file the relevant disclosures. The case management conference has been scheduled for Tuesday, October 27, 2026, at 11:00 a.m.
Following the arraignment, Chairman Wontumi was taken back to the Nsawam Maximum Security Prisons, where he is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence imposed by a differently constituted High Court in Accra in a separate case.
The case is expected to proceed to case management after the prosecution files its disclosures.
