Pastor Kelvin Kwasi Kobiru or Pastor Kelvin Elson Godson,the Founder and General Overseer of the Zoe Outreach Embassy Church and his wife, Sabina Elson Godson have been granted a GHS46m bail.
The pair have been arraigned before an Accra High Court, accused of defrauding 875 persons to the tune of over GH¢23 million under the pretext of among others, of securing them plots of land.
Pastor Kelvin Kobiru of the Zoe Embassy and wife granted bail: the facts of the case.
The couple have been given 41 counts of “conspiracy, defrauding by false pretence, and money laundering” at an Accra High Court presided over by Justice Mary Yanzuah.
They holy couple have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The presiding judge, Justice Mary Yanzuah admitted the accused persons to bail in the sum of GH¢23 million each.
They are to provide three sureties each one to be justified with documents of landed property. The sureties requirement also demands that one of the sureties is to deposit his/her passport with the registrar of the court.
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Aside the above documents, all the sureties are to deposit recognized national identification cards with registrar of the court. The two pastors are also to report to the Economic Crime Unit once every month until the final determination of the case.
The case on the Kobiru’s has been adjourned to September 5, 2022, for mentioning.
The background to the Zoe Embassy founder case at the court.
The facts of the case as presented by Assistant State Attorney, Dorm Esi Fiadzoe are that 875 complainants, mostly congregants of Pastor Godson’s church in Accra, Tarkwa and its environs in the Western Region.
Pastor Kobiru now known to be Pastor Godson and his wife owns the EL Real Estate limited and the Fromfrom Capital Limited. He bought the Fromfrom Capital limited from the original owners and registered in the names of his employees, who are holding it in trust for him.
The prosecutors said that in 2018, Pastor Godson announced to members of his church and the general public that he was operating a scheme called ‘Lease buy back’.
He explain this to mean, he would sell plots of land and other landed properties to them, invest the monies in his investment company and later buy same back at higher prices.
The prosecutor also added that Pastor Godson (Pastor Kelvin Kobiru)and his wife indicated that the monies raised from the sale of the land were to be invested in the international money market through Tikowrie Capital Limited, Fine Fort Capital Limited, Top FX and Edge FX.
That is not all, the prosecutor added that in a letter dated April 18, 2019, “the National Security Coordinator requested the Director General of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police to conduct investigations into the activities of the EL Real Estate Limited in relation to payments of dividends to their customers who had made investments with the company”.
The investigation from the CID revealed that “Pastor Godson and his wife represented to the complainants that they would sell plots of land and other landed properties to them, invest the principal sums collected from the complainants in their companies and later buy back the plots of land at higher prices”.
The pastoral couple who promised between 100 to 480 percent interest to their investors,but failed to honour their promise.
This was after several complaints and demands to the holy family to pay the said money and up till date the money has not been paid.
The prosecutors statement had it that during the period that the complainants were paying monies into the accounts of the companies of the Kobiru’s, prosecution said Pastor Godson deposited and withdrew a huge sum of money from Fine Fort Capital and bought the Fromfrom Capital Limited from its owners by August 31, 2018.
The unfolding story continues with the prosecutors indicating that EL Real Estate Limited, a company registered with the core mandate of selling lands and other landed properties had rather ventured into providing financial and investment services without license from the authorized entity which is the Securities and Exchange Commission.
It was also added that Fine Fort Capital Limited is also not licensed to engage in the business of investment/fund management.
Tikowire Capital Limited and Fromfrom Capital Limited are however licensed to do business of investment/fund management.
These are the records of the investment done by the congregants of the Godson’s church, Zoe Embassy and the general public.
“In all, about 875 persons invested a total of GH¢23,773,950 with the aforementioned companies as follows – (784) persons invested a total of GH¢ 19,288,950 with EL Real Estates Limited, (79) persons invested a total of GH¢4,208,500 with Tikowrie Capital Limited while (12) invested a total of GH¢275,500 with Fromfrom Capital Limited,” the prosecutor told the court.
