Business News of Wednesday, 6 April 2022
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2022-04-06‘Government not bothered to see us dying’ – Menzgold customers threaten withdrawal from court case
Nana Appiah Mensah, CEO Menzgold
‘There is no hope’, Menzgold customers cry
NAM1 in court over locked up funds
We prefer civil proceedings to ongoing criminal prosecution
Some customers of embattled gold dealership firm, Menzgold have opined that the state of the prosecution of the Chief Executive of the firm, Nana Appiah Mensah, shows that government does not take seriously their
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They have threatened to withdraw their names from the data that is being used to pursue the case.
According to CitiNews, the customers responded to the latest adjournment of the case in a letter to the Attorney General.
In the letter, they stated that “they may be compelled to write to the court to expunge their data from the ongoing trial because of a “lackadaisical attitude.”
Describing the adjournments as “incessant, deliberate and man-made” amid the deaths of some of their cohorts, they stated that they feel, “perhaps government is not bothered to see the MenzGold Customers dying, and the action of the prosecution is giving credence to our suspicion.”
They also stated that they prefer civil proceedings to ongoing criminal prosecution currently ongoing.
According to them, this will be a more feasible way of “retrieving and paying the customers.”
“It is our opinion that the criminal prosecution after 3 years at this embryonic stage should be clear to you and everyone that there is no hope. We urge you to heed our call for civil remedy now.”
Background
Charged with 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.
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.
The Circuit Court on July 26, 2019, granted NAM 1 bail in the sum of GH¢ 1 billion cedis with five sureties, three to be justified.
He had pleaded not guilty to all initial 13 charges levelled against him by the State. Meanwhile, the state had since amended its charge sheet which is yet to be moved.
