We deserve to be part of the bailout fund too – Menzgold customers to govt

The Coalition of Aggrieved Customers of Menzgold says the government must add its members to the list of financial sector cleanup victims who are expected to benefit from a government-sponsored bailout.

“We write on behalf of members of the Coalition of Aggrieved Customers to request that customers of Menzgold Company Limited be made part of the beneficiaries of the bailout fund for depositors of collapsed institutions by Securities and Exchange Commission,” the aggrieved Menzgold customers said in a statement issued over the weekend.

According to the Coalition, 60 of their members have died as a result of their locked-up funds while several others have been bedridden following the SEC’s order to Menzgold to stop operating over regulatory infractions.

The government’s bailout is mainly targeted at the clients of some 53 fund management companies that also collapsed.

Customers of twenty-two of the 53 companies are expected to be the first beneficiaries.

In all, a total of GH¢16.4 billion is expected to go into the bailout.

The Registrar-General’s Department will be meeting the creditors of the defunct fund management companies from today, Monday, 7 September 2020.

'Kill us; we're ready to die' – Arrested clients of collapsed Fund Managers

Recently, the spokesperson of the Coalition of Aggrieved Customers of the 53 Collapsed Fund Management Companies, Mr Charles Nyame, and one other person, were arrested for unlawful picketing with regard to their locked-up funds.

Members of the coalition besieged the premises of the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday, 1 September 2020, to stage a protest in connection with their locked-up funds.

Mr Nyame, who was handcuffed and put into the bucket of a pickup truck along with the other suspect, yelled to the media: “I am being arrested because we are making noise about our monies, we are not cocaine dealers for the government to confiscate our funds for over two years”.

“What is the government doing? Are we cocaine dealers? Are we money launderers? Are we slaves in our country? We are not afraid; they should kill us; we are ready to die.

“I am being molested by the police, they slapped me because I am protesting for my money”, he shouted.

The protest came a day after the coalition described as “misleading” and “deceptive”, the reasons given by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for excluding them from the bailout package being accorded customers of the collapsed fund managers.

SEC had said because BlackShield (formerly Gold Coast Fund Management) was challenging the revocation of its licence in court, its customers cannot be beneficiaries of the bailout.

However, speaking to journalists at a press conference in Accra, Mr Nyame said: “We consider the reasons given by the SEC as misleading and deceptive”.

“The government also issued a bailout to other customers of companies that are also in court to contest their revocation.

“It is, therefore, questionable how the government and SEC decided to apply the rules differently.

“The actions by the government and SEC are mischievous and dishonest, especially when the government is aware that the court is on legal vacation.

“We hereby call on the government to rethink and include all BlackShield customers in the bailout package since advancing the bailout package does not amount to any interference in the court process,” he noted.

Meanwhile, the management of BlackShield Company Limited has denied claims by SEC that the company has not submitted verified data on its clients to enable them benefit from the government’s bailout package for customers of the now-defunct firms.

The government has promised a bailout package for customers whose funds were locked up in fund management firms that were collapsed in the financial sector clean-up exercise.

But SEC says customers of Blackshield and three other firms will not be part of the package because BlackShield, for example, is challenging the revocation of their licences in court.

But the management of BlackShield argues that the move is an attempt to mislead the customers of the company into thinking BlackShield is to be blamed for their locked-up funds instead of SEC.

BlackShield, in a statement, noted that: “It is noteworthy, that the SEC, refused BlackShield’s application to cease executing the order of revocation pending the hearing of its complaint.”

“SEC disregarded this application by BlackShield and proceeded to deal with the assets of BlackShield despite the hearing. It is therefore surprising that the SEC would use the pendency of the same matter as an excuse to perform a duty which BlackShield has always supported and encouraged the SEC to do.”

On the issue of BlackShield not giving data of its clients to SEC, the statement said: “The claim that BlackShield submitted data capable of verifying only 3% of claims filed by customers is an absolute falsehood intended to blame the inability of the SEC to validate claims of clients on BlackShield. The SEC has at all times material possessed and had access to all client information of BlackShield.

“The real challenge, as BlackShield has consistently drawn the SEC’s attention, is the SEC’s attempt since revoking its license to manage customers’ information without recourse to BlackShield; this attempt is not helpful and has yielded no results as evidenced by the failure to successfully validate clients’ investments despite having control of all records of BlackShield.