The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has disclosed that its extensive probe into former Sanitation and Water Resources Minister Cecilia Abena Dapaah, involving parallel investigations by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), found no “direct and immediate evidence of corruption” regarding large sums of money and valuable items seized from her and her associates.
According to the OSP’s Half-Yearly Report for July 2025, the nearly seven-month investigation, which began in July 2023, did, however, identify “strong indications of suspected money laundering and structuring” – activities that fall outside the direct mandate of the anti-graft office.
The report states: “After nearly seven months of extensive investigation by the Office and a parallel inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States, no direct and immediate evidence of corruption was found in respect of seized funds and frozen bank accounts linked to Ms. Dapaah and her associates – though the investigation identified strong indications of suspected money laundering and structuring, beyond the direct mandate of the Office.”
Consequently, in January 2024, the OSP referred the case to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) for further investigation into the money laundering aspects, which are within EOCO’s primary jurisdiction.
However, in a twist, EOCO returned the entire docket to the OSP in May 2024. EOCO’s reasoning was that “since money laundering is not a substantive offence but a collateral offence which must be founded on a predicate offence, EOCO did not have a mandate to commence investigations into the matter since it could not premise its investigation on any predicate offence.”
The case saw a new development in May 2025 when, under new leadership, EOCO formally requested the docket back from the OSP for a fresh review and commencement of an investigation. The OSP complied on 29 May 2025, forwarding a duplicate docket.
The OSP expressed its view that the dossier “serves as a valuable background resource for EOCO to commence its own investigation in respect of aspects of the case the Office does not have a direct mandate.” It pledged its “full collaborative support to EOCO in its review and investigation and probable further action.”
The case of Ms. Dapaah, which became public after the OSP froze her bank accounts and seized substantial sums of cash discovered in her home, has been one of the most high-profile corruption probes in recent years. The latest development indicates that while initial suspicions of direct corruption were not substantiated by the OSP and FBI, the financial transactions involved remain under scrutiny for potential money laundering.
