The High Court Adentan on Thursday, 19th March 2026, ordered the unfreezing of bank accounts belonging to Sesi-Edem Company Limited, delivering a decisive ruling that vindicates Gabriel Tanko Kwamigah-Atokple, founder of the company, and clarifies the limits of the Economic and Organised Crime Office’s (EOCO) investigative powers.
The ruling comes after a petition filed by JG Resources Ltd triggered EOCO’s intervention, resulting in the freezing of Sesi-Edem’s accounts on November 20, 2025, and December 17, 2025, before an ex parte order on January 30, 2026 confirmed the freeze. In its decision, the Court held that EOCO acted outside its statutory mandate and abused its powers in freezing the company’s accounts, bringing clarity to a matter that had attracted considerable public attention in recent weeks.
It held that the dispute between Sesi-Edem and JG Resources Ltd arose from a private commercial agreement that involved no fraud or money laundering. The Court emphasised that the matter was purely contractual and therefore outside EOCO’s statutory remit. Consequently, EOCO’s investigation and the freezing of the company’s accounts were ultra vires and legally unsustainable.
The Court observed that performance under the Sale and Purchase Agreement was ongoing, and that the contractual delivery period had not yet expired. Sesi-Edem, therefore, was not even in breach of contract. The Court held that any disputes over delivery schedules are civil matters and must be resolved by the civil courts.
On regulatory compliance, the Court confirmed that Sesi-Edem was fully authorised to trade in gold at the time of the transaction. The company operated under directives issued by the Ghana Gold Board during the transition to the current regulatory regime, which permitted licensed dealers to continue trading. The Court concluded that any representations made by the company regarding its licensing status were accurate and lawful.
The Court strongly condemned EOCO for serious misconduct. The agency failed to get judicial approval for its freezing order of 20th November 2025 within the 14 days required by law. Instead, EOCO re-issued the order on 17th December 2025 without telling the Court about the first order and then sought confirmation using the ex parte procedure, ensuring that Sesi-Edem would not have a chance to respond. The High Court ruled that the re-issued order was invalid, making it clear that the extended freezing of the company’s accounts was completely unlawful and an abuse of EOCO’s powers.
The ruling makes it clear that private parties cannot weaponize state investigative powers to settle commercial disagreements, and enforcement agencies like EOCO must operate strictly within their legal mandate. The petition lodged by JG Resources Ltd, which set this chain of events in motion, has been firmly rejected as baseless.
The High Court’s ruling comes on the heels of separate orders obtained by Sesi-Edem in December 2025 from the Accra High Court to safeguard funds believed to have been fraudulently obtained from Turkish investors through a forged Sale and Purchase Agreement that misused the company’s name, with JG Resources positioned as the facilitator in whose accounts the funds were to be received. The decision highlights Sesi-Edem’s determined legal defence of its reputation and fully vindicates both the company and its founder, Gabriel Tanko Kwamigah-Atokple, after weeks of intense public scrutiny. The company’s case was led by Knightscild Chambers, whose legal representation proved instrumental in securing this outcome.
