The country’s real estate companies are involved in money laundering, according to Samuel Nartey George, the member of parliament for Ningo Prampram.
He claimed that the real estate industry has developed into a haven for people to conceal the source of money obtained from illicit sources and transform it into a legitimate source, avoiding prosecution, conviction, and the seizure of the criminal funds.
Sam George said on Joy News’ File that high-rise structures and the inflated pricing of real estate properties are frequently sold at exorbitant prices.
He asserted that those engaged in real estate-related money laundering schemes frequently exchange ownership of these properties in order to effectively “clean” illicit funds.
He said “Real estate business in Ghana is money laundering. If our authorities want to deal with it, they will deal with it.”
He continued by saying that the price of real estate in Ghana is in no way justifiable.
“You keep seeing all these new high-rise buildings going up and they are selling them for half a million, a million dollars and they keep buying and buying amongst themselves… I have dirty money to clean, I put up a real estate property, you have dirty money you come and buy the property from me, and then automatically your money becomes clean, then tomorrow you also start building your own then I come back and buy and we are just cleaning the money,” he noted.
While homes in the nation are becoming more valuable and expensive, the real estate industry is one of the most lucrative and quickly growing sectors of the global economy.
Sam George’s comments follow reports of a theft incident at Cecilia Abena Dapaah‘s and her husband Daniel Osei Kuffour’s Abelemkpe home in Accra. Cecilia Abena Dapaah is the minister of sanitation and water resources.
Two housekeepers, Patience Botwe, 18, and Sarah Agyei, 30, are accused of conspiring to commit a crime and five counts of theft in connection with the incident.
The alleged thefts, which allegedly took place between July and October 2022, included $95,000 worth of jewelry, clothing, handbags, and perfumes that belonged to Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah.
On Saturday, July 22, 2023, Dapaah did deliver her letter of resignation to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
She has also stated that the statistics reported in the media are not accurate representations of what she and her husband told the police.
