FBI found No Direct Corruption Evidence Against Cecelia Dapaah – OSP

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has disclosed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) found no direct or immediate evidence of corruption in connection with the seized funds belonging to former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, and her associates.

This information was contained in the OSP’s 2025 half-year report, issued on 31 July.

In July 2023, the OSP announced that it had launched a joint investigation with the FBI into suspected corruption and related offences involving large sums of cash and other valuables linked to Ms. Dapaah.

Providing an update, the OSP explained that after nearly seven months of extensive inquiries, investigators “found no direct and immediate evidence of corruption with respect to the seized funds and frozen bank accounts associated with Ms. Dapaah and her associates.” However, the probe uncovered strong indications of suspected money laundering and structuring, matters that fall outside the OSP’s core mandate.

The report recalled that in January 2024, the case was referred to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) for further investigation into the alleged money laundering and structuring activities, which fall under EOCO’s jurisdiction.

Nonetheless, in May 2024, EOCO returned the docket to the OSP, arguing that money laundering is not a standalone offence but rather one that must be based on an underlying or “predicate” offence. Without such a predicate, EOCO maintained it had no authority to proceed.

According to the OSP, the matter was revisited in May 2025 when EOCO’s new leadership formally requested that the docket be resubmitted for review and investigation. In response, the OSP, through a communication dated 29 May 2025, forwarded a duplicate docket back to EOCO.