Nana Appiah Mensah, aka NAM1
The owner of Menzgold Ghana Limited, Nana Appiah Mensah, aka NAM1, has reportedly been set free by a court in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
This was after he won a case of fraud brought against him by Horizon Royal Diamonds in a purported $51 million gold deal.
NAM1 was made to post a bail bond of $3.5 million, and he is said to be pursuing the company that caused his arrest.
According to reports, he travelled to Dubai to retrieve about $31 million from the company but was subsequently arrested upon arrival.
It’s unclear whether the Interpol’s arrest request by the Ghanaian authorities, as confirmed by the CID Boss last week, is still in place.
A source close to NAM1 told DAILY GUIDE that “he is making frantic efforts to track down companies and individuals who owe him in order to get more cash to pay Menzgold Ghana Limited customers, whose investments have been locked up following the closure of the business.”
Two weeks ago, news broke that NAM1 was granted bail, but was immediately re-arrested by the police in the Emirati country after the request from Interpol.
DAILY GUIDE gathered that the Dubai prosecutors realized that a prima facie case might not be established against NAM1 in a $51 million gold deal, and as a result the court started to ‘relax’ the restrictions placed on him.
Nigerian Connection
According to reports, the Dubai authorities are particularly on the heels of one Adetunji Adewoye Olorunfemi, aka Ade, believed to be involved in the $51 million gold deal for which NAM1 has landed in trouble.
The said Ade, according to DAILY GUIDE’s sources, was placed on the ‘Stop List’ at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) after the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) detected that he was using both Ghanaian and Nigerian passports at the same time.
He reportedly outwitted the security agencies by travelling by road to Nigeria to escape arrest instead of using KIA.
Diplomatic Passport
A source claimed between 2012 and 2016, Ade used a Ghanaian diplomatic passport even though he did not qualify for it and used the birth date – January 12, 1976.
Interestingly, in Ade’s ECOWAS Travel Card, he uses the name Ogumtomole Yinka with the birth date, 01-12-1980.
What happened?
NAM1’s trouble in Dubai started after he was introduced to officials of an Emirati-based company managed by a Lebanese, Horizon Royal Diamond for the supply of gold until some delays angered the Dubai company.
Manager of Horizon Royal Diamond, whose name was given simply as Daniel and based in Dubai, was said to have instructed his representative, one Zacca, who is believed to be an Angolan, to find out what was causing the delays.
However, upon his arrival in Ghana, Zacca visited NAM1 at his office and there he met a Nigerian named Ayodeleor Ade and Ghanaian called Charles, who were believed to be the business partners of the Menzgold boss.
After Zacca’s meeting with NAM1, he reportedly had discussions with the Nigerian and Ghanaian, who promised to supply gold from Sierra Leone at a cheaper rate.
Loses
Zacca informed Daniel in Dubai about the new arrangement, and they reached an agreement with the Nigerian and Ghanaian on the blindside of NAM1.
The two failed to supply the gold from Sierra Leone as promised, which led Horizon Royal Diamond to lose $51 million in the process.
Plead
After the loss, officials of the Dubai-based company reportedly went back to NAM1 to ‘revive’ their business and even apologized to the Menzgold boss who allegedly accepted them back.
The source said the Dubai company became indebted to Menzgold to the tune of about $31 million.
Joint Venture
Again, the source indicated that after their failed attempt in getting gold from Sierra Leone, Horizon Royal Diamond officials proposed to NAM1 for them to enter into a joint venture (JV) arrangement for the acquisition of a gold mine in the Ashanti Region called Oware.
NAM1 is said to have agreed to the proposal and committed to $2 million to commence the acquisition process while Horizon Royal Diamond pledged to inject $100 million into the operations of the mine.
The agreement, however, failed to materialize but supply from Menzgold continued, as NAM1 reportedly sourced gold across the country.
List of Customers
DAILY GUIDE’s investigations in February revealed that there were a total of 4,998 customers of Menzgold and not the estimated 46,000 as published earlier in the media.
By Melvin Tarlue