The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) has said its investigative project into “How Dirty Money Finds a Home in Dubai Real Estate” is not aimed at diverting the attention of Ghanaians from socio-economic challenges confronting the country.
The investigative report published in May 2024 alleges that Inusah Fuseini, a former MP for Tamale Central, owns over $7.235 million worth of real estate in Dubai, including multiple properties in the prime Palm Jumeirah development.
Fuseini was a land and natural resources minister and minister of roads and highways under the Mahama government.
The OCCRP investigation also offers details of an apartment in Dubai, worth just over US$133,000, owned by Moses Asaga, the former MP for Nabdam, minister of state in the Ministry of Finance, and chief executive of the National Petroleum Authority.
Financial secrecy and money laundering
The report, titled How Dirty Money Finds a Home in Dubai Real Estate, sets out information about 20 apartments across six luxurious areas in Dubai linked to Fuseini.
The report highlights what it describes as Dubai’s appeal as a haven for people looking to launder ill-gotten gains because, it says, few questions are asked about sources of wealth, financial transactions can be kept secret, property taxes are minimal, and the emirate offers political stability.
Two other Ghanaians were named in the OCCRP report: Anthony Alfred Benin, a former Supreme Court judge and member of the ECOWAS Court of Justice, and Joseph Kwaku Asamoah, a former finance director of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, who co-owns two properties.
The office of the former president has since described the report as a political machination to divert the attention of Ghanaians to critical issues confronting the country.
However, speaking with Benjamin Offei-Addo on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Friday (June 28), Beauregard Tromp, the Africa editor at the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, said, “We have no interest or ambition to distract people.”
Source: Asaaseradio.com
