Yet another wild goose chase is underway as the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Attorney General embark on investigations into alleged criminal deals involving KOSMOS and the EO Group relative to their stake in the West Cape Three Points block of Ghana's oil field.
While hints have subtly been dropped to the effect that the companies under reference are being investigated for allegedly willfully causing financial loss to the State; money laundering and false declaration to public agencies, our sources at the AG's Department, have intimated that investigations have so far failed to establish any solid and factual basis (prima facie) for the allegations of willfully causing financial loss to the State and money laundering.
Our sources also revealed that as far back as in June 2009, a meeting attended by Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mrs. Betty Mould Iddrisu, one Duke Amaniampong widely believed to be a Tsatsu Tsikata protégé, Robert Reeves, General Counsel of Anadarko and others, in Washington D.C., USA was briefed that no specific violations of the foreign corruption practices act (FCPA) had been committed in the Kosmos/EO deal in Ghana or the US, and therefore the Department of Justice of the US was not inclined to investigate the Kosmos/EO agreement.
The said meeting was also told that the Ghana government/Anadarko-sponsored international investigators were not able to find any link between a prohibited act and any Ghanaian government official or party official, and that without any such link or evidence, there was no violation of the FCPA.
"In view of the abysmal failure of both Ghanaian and external investigators to find a 'smoking gun', the Attorney General is now inclined to pursue the third option of forgery or false declaration to public agencies against one of the partners of the EO Group. There is talk of the said partner allegedly forging signatures of his other partner and his wife for the purpose of registering the EO Group and other related companies with the Registrar General's Department'', disclosed our sources at the AG's Department. "ALSO BEING LOOKED AT IS THE MATTER OF THE CITIZENSHIP OR NATIONALITY STATUS OF THE SAID PARTNER PRIOR TO THE CONSUMMATION OF THE KOSMOS/EO/GNPC/GoG PETROLEUM AGREEMENT IN JULY, 2004. THESE CHARGES ARE A FAR CRY FROM THE OVER BLOWN HYPE OF WILLFULLY CAUSING FINANCIAL LOSS TO THE STATE AND MONEY LAUNDERING THE NATION AND THE WORLD HAVE BEEN BOMBARDED WITHIN RECENT TIMES. AN ANTI CLIMAX IS IN THE PIPELINE JUST AS WE HAD IN VODAFONE AND GHANA@50 PROBE CIRCUS, MARK OUR WORDS.''
On-going investigations by The New Crusading Guide have revealed that the investigations by the SFO and the AG are driven by mere suspicions, wild-cat perceptions, unfounded allegations and sheer bitterness on the part of certain persons who once held sway over Ghana's oil industry and are scheming in the shadows to re-assert their influence, control and command.
"THOSE PERSONS ARE EXERCISING POWER AND AUTHORITY WITHOUT RESPONSIBILTY AND ARE NOT ACCOUNTABLE TO ANYBODY. THEY ARE VIRTUALLY SHADOW ATTORNEY GENERALS AND MINISTERS OF ENERGY.
THEY ARE DIVEN BY UNBRIDLED BITTERNESS AND HATRED WHICH HAVE NO REAL FOUNDATION. BUT HISTORY WILL SURELY EXPOSE THEM AND THEIR EVIL PLANS'', reflected our sources who spoke to us on condition of strict anonymity.
Our sources also underscored that the deliberate heightening of the purported investigations in recent times, is targeted at the KOSMOS/Exxon Mobil Agreement which the Government of Ghana and the GNPC are opposed to. .........