Dubaigate: OCCRP report on corrupt purchase of Dubai real estate named Mahama officials, says Ephson
An investigative report by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project published in May claims that the former Tamale Central MP Inusah Fuseini owns 20 properties in Dubai worth over US$7 million and the ex-deputy finance minister Moses Asaga an apartment worth $133,000
The founder and editor-in-chief of the Daily Dispatch newspaper, Ben Ephson, has said that although his account of an international investigative report on corrupt real-estate acquisition in Dubai did not cite the former president John Mahama as corrupt, specific claims about named former Mahama appointees are set out in the report and the individuals named must answer to the allegations.
An investigative report by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) published in May 2024 alleges that Inusah Fuseini, a former MP for Tamale Central, owns over US$7.235 million worth of real estate in Dubai, including multiple properties in the prime Palm Jumeirah development.
Fuseini was a lands 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 $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 John Mahama has since described the publication as an attempt to divert public attention from pressing national issues and insisted that John Mahama is incorruptible.
Infer or imply?
Reacting to the development on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Wednesday (26 June), Ephson said the Daily Dispatch report on the story merely pointed out that the officials named in the investigative report were appointed by Mahama during his administration.
“The only reference to John Mahama is that these are officials he appointed as ministers. It doesn’t [necessarily] mean that they did the corrupt act with Mahama.
“There is nowhere [any specific claim about the former president] in the story, so to imply that reference to Mahama appointees implies [that] Mahama is corrupt is far-fetched and very unnecessary,” Ephson said.
The Daily Dispatch boss expressed an open mind on responses to the allegations. Ephson said that it if the two main politically exposed Ghanaians named in the OCCRP report could prove that they had acquired their property legitimately, he would stand ready to publish their rejoinders in the newspaper.
Listen to Ben Ephson in the audio clip below:
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