July 17, 2024
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
At the request of the United States government, Ghanaian authorities commenced extradition proceedings against Abiola Ayorinde Kayode, alias ABK, indicted in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska for a large-scale business email compromise fraud. The District Magistrate Court, Kaneshie, Accra, stayed the proceedings and referred a constitutional question to the Supreme Court: whether the 1931 Extradition Treaty between the United States and Great Britain forms part of Ghana’s laws, given Article 16 applied to the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast. Writing for a unanimous court, Kwofie JSC held the District Court could have determined the matter and, reading Articles 2 and 16 together, concluded the treaty applies to all territories that became Ghana. The court grounded its decision in the Gold Coast constitutional instruments, the Ghana Independence Act 1957, Article 11 of the 1992 Constitution, Extradition Act 1960 s3(2), Ghanaian precedent, and comparative Nigerian authority.
KWOFIE JSC:
This reference to the Supreme Court was sent by the District Court, Kaneshie, Accra who stated the question for determination as follows:
“whether or not the Extradition Treaty between the United States of America and the United Kingdom which was signed on 22nd December 1931 and came into force on 24th June 1935 forms part of the laws of Ghana within the meaning of Article 11(1) (d) of the 1992 Constitution and Section 3(2) of the Extradition Act 1960 (Act 22) in the light of the fact that Article 16 of the said Treaty makes the Treaty applicable to the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast”.
BACKGROUND
The reference emanated from a request for extradition of the fugitive presented to Ghana by the United States (USA) government based on the Extradition Treaty between the United States of America and Great Britain which was signed on 22nd December 1931 pursuant to the indictment of the fugitive in the United States on 21st August 2019 for offences of fraud committed by the fugitive and his co-conspirators.
The 1st fugitive/applicant (referred to in this judgment as the applicant) Abiola Ayorinde Kayode alias ABK has been charged in the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska on 22nd August 2019 on an indictment for engaging in a large transnational criminal enterprise, involving numerous financial fraud schemes in the case of United States vs. Alex Ogunshiakin, Felix Okpoh and Abiola. The operations targeted Chief Financial Officers, Controllers or other financial employees of businesses who received spoofed emails that appeared to be from the chief executive officers, owners or other executives of the businesses and requested that the recipient or target employees submit a wire transfer. They succeeded in defrauding over 70 companies, their victims, who reported a combined loss of over 6 Million Dollars. The applicant Abiola Ayorinde Kayode (ABK) and others conspired to defraud victims and launder the proceeds of the fraud through a business email compromise scheme which is Nigerian based and involves a large, complex, and loosely organized group of criminals with different specialties in various aspects of the scheme. Investigations revealed that illicit funds obtained in the scheme were transferred to bank accounts in China, the United Arab Emirates and other countries.
The Applicant’s involvement in the fraudulent scheme included providing Amiyeloye, a member of the scheme with US bank accounts which were used by the