The lawyer representing disgruntled Menzgold customers, Amanda Clinton, has praised Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame for filing fresh charges against Nana Appiah Mensah, the CEO of the now-defunct Menzgold.
According to Amanda Clinton, the decision by the AG's office to focus on the 39 charges is an indication that some work has been done in the background to ensure these charges can stick and be followed through in court.
The AG’s office had previously posted 61 charges against Nana Appiah Mensah in the Circuit court but following the voluntary cessation of that case, the AG filled 39 fresh charges against the embattled CEO at the High Court and this Amanda and many Menzgold customers say is a step in the right direction.
“This is encouraging from the Attorney General’s department, particularly because the concern was Mr Mensah was emboldened due to the delay in the prosecution. You know, five years later and 36 adjournments and people were like is he so bold because they aren't prosecuting him? So the media doing their job, and the investors being in uproar has hopefully led to the government revisiting this and the Menzgolders that I have spoken to are very grateful that the attorney general has taken this up and moved this to the hight court.
"The charges are pretty much the same as the previous one but it is less in terms of count but this is because they want to go after charges that can actually stick.”
Court documents sighted by GhanaWeb indicate that the Office of the Attorney has slapped NAM1 with 39 charges.
The charges include 25 counts of “Defrauding by false pretence contrary to sections 131(1) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29); and seven counts of “Fraudulent breach of trust contrary to section 128 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29)”.
The other charges are seven counts of “Money Laundering contrary to section 1(2)(a)(i) of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2020 (Act 1044).”
The Office of the Attorney General indicated that its investigations show that NAM1 truly committed the offences he has been charged with.
“Investigations revealed that the accused persons under false pretences took a total sum of One billion, sixty hundred and eighty million, nine hundred and twenty thousand Ghana cedis (GH 1,680,920,000) from their customers which these customers have not recovered.
“Investigations further disclosed that between 2017 and 2018, the accused persons transferred huge sums of depositor's funds from Menzgold Ghana Company Ltd. and Brew Marketing Consult Ltd to Zylofon Media, a company related to Al. Huge sums of money were also withdrawn by Al or transferred into his bank account for his personal use.
“Investigations have established that the money fraudulently obtained from depositors and dishonestly appropriated by the accused persons remained unpaid as Menagold Ghana Company Ltd.'s licence was revoked. In the course of investigations, a number of vehicles were recovered from the accused persons which have been auctioned, and the proceeds kept in an exhibit account. Some gold bars were also recovered from the accused persons,” parts of the court document, reads.
The court has set September 19, 2023, to commence the hearing of the case.
Between November 2016 and March 2019, many customers of MenzGold petitioned the police complaining that they had invested huge sums of money with the accused persons but were unable to realise their investments after persistent efforts.
NAMI was initially charged with 14 counts of abetment of crime, defrauding by false pretences, carrying on a deposit-taking business without a licence, sale of minerals without a licence, unlawful deposit-taking, and money laundering.
The charges were later amended from 61 with his plea yet to be taken on them.
It is alleged that the accused had taken various sums of money, totalling GH¢1.6 billion from customers.
The State had previously on June 24, 2020, filed new charges against the CEO of Menzgold, also known as NAM 1 at the Accra Circuit Court.
DSP Sylvester Asare then told the Court that his directives were that he should hold on to the new charges and the plea-taking of the accused.
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Nana Appiah Mensah, CEO of Mengold and Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame