Let NAM1 be; withdraw court case – Defrauded customers tell gov’t

Some aggrieved customers of Nana Appiah Mensah’s defunct Menzgold company are agitating for the prosecution of NAM1 to be suspended by the state.

In their view, minus the criminal prosecution of the former Menzgold CEO, they would have got their locked-up funds by now.

“We are really disappointed in how the government is handling the matter. To us, the government is not committed to resolving this because for three years the government is still investigating the matter, although it’s not a murder case,” the Convener of the aggrieved Menzgold customers’ group, Mr Fred Forson recently said in an interview.

“This is a straightforward matter, so, for us Menzgold customers, we believe that this is just a charade and the Attorney General cannot be telling us they are doing the investigation. This doesn’t have to happen”, he said on Accra-based Joy News on Tuesday, 21 June 2022.

“That’s why we have suggested they should take advantage of the current private motion, lay it before Parliament and ensure that Parliament assists the government in finding a lasting solution to this,” he added.

To him, the “outcome of this criminal case is 80% to 90%; either he’s found guilty, he goes to jail and nothing is said about our money or when he is innocent, he’ll come back, then we still use the civil route to get our monies and that’s what we are suggesting to the government”.

NAM1 was earlier slapped with 13 charges in 2019 but later September of the same year, some 48 additional charges were added.

Two months prior, he had been facing charges of defrauding by false pretence and two counts of abetment to carry out banking business without a licence contrary to Section 6 (1) of the Banks and Specialised Deposit-taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930).

His Brew Marketing Consult and Menzgold Ghana Limited were also slapped with charges of defrauding by false pretence contrary to sections 20 (1) and 13 (1) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).

NAM1 arrived in Accra via an Emirates Airlines flight in July 2019 but was immediately arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service.

He was interrogated in connection with fraud allegations levelled against him.

The young Ghanaian businessman had been in the custody of Dubai authorities since December 2018.

He was arrested during his sojourn to the Emirates to collect some hefty amount owed his company by a businessman there.

NAM1, who is being sought after by both his thousands of aggrieved clients whose investments have been locked up with the company since August 2018; as well as the government of Ghana, won two court cases against his rival businessman while in Dubai.

An Interpol red alert was on NAM1’s head for several months during his detention in Dubai.

The Supreme Court of Dubai upheld a victory of the businessman in a lower court which ordered his Emirati business rival to pay the Ghanaian some $39 million and compensation.