Tonto Denies $800 Link to $19m Embassy Fraud

Kofi Tonto, a former Head of Information and Public Affairs at Ghana’s Embassy in Washington, has rejected allegations linking him to an alleged fraudulent scheme involving about US$19 million, insisting that he neither participated in nor benefited from any illicit financial arrangement. Mr Tonto said he received a one-time payment of US$800 in July 2021, but maintained that the money was a standard child benefit and had no connection to the alleged financial irregularities reportedly uncovered at the embassy.

In a statement dated Wednesday, August 12, 2026, Mr Tonto said he had become aware of a publication alleging that he received the US$800 from funds connected to the alleged scheme at Ghana’s diplomatic mission in Washington, United States. He said the allegations were reportedly based on findings from a forensic audit conducted by the Ghana Audit Service into the affairs of the embassy covering the period from 2017 to 2025. Mr Tonto, however, stressed that his name had not been listed in the audit report as a person of interest for investigation. “It is instructive to note that in the said audit report, I have not been named as a person of interest for investigation,” he said.

According to him, the US$800 payment was made in July 2021 while he was serving at the embassy and constituted a child benefit package. He explained that, based on his knowledge and recollection, the payment was not unusual, noting that about 28 other staff members had also received benefits for various reasons. Mr Tonto therefore argued that the payment could not reasonably be used to establish his involvement in an alleged scheme running into millions of dollars, particularly because he neither requested the money nor determined its amount, method of payment or source of funding.

He said he had no knowledge of where the money originated and therefore could not accept any suggestion that the payment demonstrated complicity in the alleged financial misconduct. The former embassy official also addressed other payments he received during his tenure, including compensation, allowances, benefits and refunds. He said those payments were made between March 2019 and July 2021, when he worked at the embassy, and were processed in accordance with established procedures.

Mr Tonto maintained that he had no involvement in decisions concerning the embassy’s 11th financial management, particularly matters relating to the opening or closure of bank accounts. His response comes amid attention surrounding alleged financial irregularities at Ghana’s Embassy in Washington following the reported forensic examination of the mission’s operations over several years. Mr Tonto urged his family, friends, associates and the wider public to disregard what he described as a distorted narrative intended to associate him with wrongdoing.

He said the circumstances surrounding the US$800 payment should not be misrepresented as evidence of participation in an alleged US$19 million fraudulent scheme. Mr Tonto’s statement did not dispute that the US$800 was paid to him. Rather, his position is that the payment was a legitimate staff benefit, unrelated to any alleged financial misconduct, and that the audit report did not identify him as a person of interest. He maintained that he was not involved in decisions concerning the financial administration of the embassy and called for his name not to be linked to the allegations on the basis of the payment alone.

By: Joyce Owusu