Commercial disputes can attract criminal charges – Kpebu explains

Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has explained that a commercial transaction can give rise to both civil and criminal proceedings, saying the existence of a business dispute does not automatically prevent criminal prosecution.

Kpebu made the point while discussing the Ghana EXIM Bank case involving Chairman Wontumi, in which the charges include defrauding by false pretences, uttering a forged document, money laundering and intentionally causing financial loss to a public body.

He said the same conduct could attract different legal consequences depending on the circumstances and the route taken by the affected party or the state.

“There are a lot of transactions or activities that have both criminal and civil consequences. They have both criminal and civil,” he said.

To explain the distinction, Kpebu used the example of a person slapping another individual. He said the affected person could pursue compensation through a civil action or report the incident to the police for possible criminal proceedings.

“One conduct, a slap, you can go through the criminal channel or go through the civil channel,” he said.

Applying the principle to commercial transactions, Kpebu explained that the state could pursue criminal charges where it considers the circumstances to involve offences such as fraud or the use of forged documents.

“The prosecution has the option to just look at it simply as a civil case or do the criminal case and say it’s defrauding by false pretences,” he said on TV3.

He added that courts handle other cases in which commercial transactions have led to criminal prosecutions. Whether the charges in Wontumi’s case can be established, however, will depend on the evidence and the court’s assessment.

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