A spokesperson for the Coalition of Aggrieved Customers of Menzgold Limited, Frederick Forson, has said the defunct company owes an amount of about GH¢716 million to over 10,300 customers.
The gold trading company, after a few months in operation, was in 2018 suspended by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after it found the firm operating without a valid license.
The move, however, resulted in the funds of numerous customers being locked-up after the firm was shut down. Subsequently, in 2019, EOCO froze the accounts of Menzgold CEO, Nana Appiah Mensah.
Speaking in an interview on the GTV Breakfast Show on September 13, Frederick Forson said a recent petition sent to the president for intervention seeks to plead for mercy and compassion in the matter which has taken about four years.
“The Menzgold issue has become a national issue but unfortunately as a country, we are not taking the pains to look deeper into the issue and understand the point of view of the aggrieved customers.”
“September 13, 2022, marked four years since the closure of the Menzgold and a lot of customers have gone through a lot of pain. We believe that the president has the power to show mercy and compassion...so we are appealing to him for special intervention in the matter so customers can retrieve their locked-up funds.”
Frederick Forson however urged that the same bailout programme extended to some collapsed banks during the banking clean-up exercise, should be extended to Menzgold customers as well.
Meanwhile, since the collapse of the gold dealership firm, it is reported that about 179 persons who invested their monies in the unlicensed gold trading company have passed away.
Most recently, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Dame, recounted the negative impact of defunct gold dealership firm, Menzgold Limited on Ghana’s financial sector.
He said fallouts from the collapse of the firm have caused distress to many Ghanaian homes and unleashed a social crisis.
In a related development, the Attorney General has hinted that dockets of the financial crimes perpetuated in the Menzgold saga are almost ready for the prosecution to begin.
“I am happy to state that after painstaking investigations, dockets on that financial crime are almost ready for prosecution to commence in earnest," Godfred Dame recently said.
He added that apart from the Menzgold saga, the Office of the Attorney-General is prosecuting other high-profile cases involving the offences of willfully causing financial loss to the State such as stealing, corruption, fraud, procurement breaches and money laundering.
Nana Appiah Mensah is CEO of defunct gold dealership firm, Menzgold