The state has initiated major criminal proceedings against the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, over an alleged multi-million-cedi agricultural loan fraud.
A formal charge sheet filed by the Prosecution Division of the Office of the Attorney-General on 15 May 2026 at the High Court in Accra reveals a web of deception involving altered financial receipts, non-existent farming operations, and a massive financial hit to Ghana EXIM Bank.
Chairman Wontumi, 50, alongside Thomas Antwi-Boasiako, who is currently at large, and their corporate entity, Wontumi Farms Limited, are facing four severe criminal counts.
These include defrauding by false pretence, uttering a forged document, money laundering, and intentionally causing financial loss to a public body.
According to the state’s brief facts signed by the Deputy Attorney-General, Dr Justice Srem-Sai, the legal troubles trace back to January 2018.
Chairman Wontumi, acting as the Managing Director of Wontumi Farms Limited, approached the Ghana Export-Import (EXIM) Bank to request a ₵19 million credit and grant facility. The stated purpose of the funds was to establish an ambitious commercial cultivation venture.
To win over bank executives, the high-profile businessman made several grand representations.
He declared in his application letter that Wontumi Farms had successfully acquired a massive 100,000-acre parcel of land for the project. Furthermore, accompanying project proposals claimed that developing just 2,500 hectares (roughly 6,000 acres) of the site would create employment for 6,000 families, directly supporting an estimated 38,000 individuals.
However, state investigators uncovered significant irregularities dating back to the inception of the loan process.
The bank application was supported by a ‘Board Resolution Letter’ signed by Thomas Antwi-Boasiako, the Board Chairman.
The document stated that the application had been authorised during a board meeting on 9 December 2017, four clear days before Wontumi Farms Limited was legally incorporated and authorised to commence business on 14 December 2017.
Unaware of the chronological inconsistencies, the Ghana EXIM Bank extended a credit facility offer of ₵18,734,260.00 to the company on 16 January 2018 to cover agricultural machinery, working capital, and staff consultancy fees.
Chairman Wontumi signed the acceptance agreement in Kumasi on 23 January 2018, and disbursements commenced shortly after, totaling ₵14,302,000.00 by March 2018.
The second count on the charge sheet, uttering a forged document, centres around how the accused persons justified the spending of these state funds.
In March 2018, Chairman Wontumi presented a document bearing the title ‘Receipt’ to the EXIM Bank to prove he had purchased ₵4 million worth of specialised agricultural machinery. Relying entirely on this proof of purchase, the bank released subsequent tranches of funding.
State intelligence has now exposed that document as a fabrication. Investigations revealed the paper was originally a simple pro-forma price invoice issued by an enterprise known as KAS-SAMA Enterprise when Chairman Wontumi made casual pricing inquiries.
The business owner told detectives that the politician promised to return later to make the actual purchase, but was never seen or heard from again. Instead, the inscription ‘Pro-forma Invoice’ on the document was deliberately erased, altered, and replaced with ‘Receipt’ before being submitted to the bank.
The state further alleges that the grand agricultural vision was entirely a front. Intelligence operations conducted by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) established that the accused persons did not clear a single acre of land, bought no machinery, and employed no farm labourers.
Instead, the prosecution alleges that the Chairman Wontumi systematically withdrew the state funds from the corporate accounts of Wontumi Farms Limited, moving them into personal accounts to fund other luxury business enterprises. This forms the basis of Count Three, which charges him with laundering the proceeds of fraud between 2018 and 2022.
The state’s final and perhaps most damaging charge relates to the overall financial devastation brought upon the public institution.
Count Four highlights that because of the total failure to execute the business transaction or service the debt, the Ghana EXIM Bank has been left with an institutional loss exceeding ₵30,000,000.00 in principal and accumulated liabilities.
When extensive efforts by EXIM Bank officials to recover the outstanding funds were completely stonewalled by the accused, EOCO formally stepped in during March 2025.
Chairman Wontumi was subsequently arrested, cautioned, and officially hit with charges on 14 May 2026, leading to his imminent arraignment.
According to prosecutors, the second accused director, Thomas Antwi-Boasiako, is still at large.
The latest case adds to mounting charges against Chairman Wontumi, including alleged illegal mining associated with his Akonta Mining Limited.
Chairman Wontumi is presently lacing his boots to contest for the National Chairman position of the opposition NPP.
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