Nana Appiah Mensah aka NAM1
Clients of the defunct gold collectible firm, Menzgold Ghana Limited, have started a fresh fight with the owner of the company after claiming that only two out of 181 people have been paid after new payment plan was agreed on.
The clients calling themselves Coalition of Aggrieved Customers of Menzgold Ghana Limited, said managers of the defunct firm honoured payment obligations to only two customers.
The company on December 19, 2021, published the names of some ‘validated customers’ who were supposed to be the first batch of clients to be paid between December 2021 and June 2022 under a new payment plan.
However, the coalition is claiming that since the publication, only two of their members who were owed just GH¢ 4,000 each have received their locked up cash from Menzgold.
A spokesperson for the customers, Frederick Forson told Citi FM in Accra on Wednesday that, “Ever since we put out the list of 181 names, only two people have confirmed that they have been paid since the list was released last month. Each of them was paid GH¢4,000, and that is the amount they are owed by Menzgold. So the rest do not know what is happening, nobody has called to tell them anything regarding how to get their monies.”
Fraud Claims
In October last year, Menzgold claimed about 45% of claimants/transactions supporting documents by its clients for payment were either incomplete or fraudulent.
“We have discovered shocking evidence that points to the fact that, some claimants purporting to be indebted to by Menzgold transacted through third parties; some unethical Menzgold and Brew Marketing Consult staff members and in other instances via referrals, mostly close relations who took delivery of their funds under the pretext of signing them unto to the Menzgold ‘Gold Vault Market’ but ended up engaging in the many cryptocurrency products on sale on the Ghanaian market, with a monthly return on investment (ROI) ranging between thirty and sixty per cent (30%-60%),” a statement signed by Head of Communications, Menzgold, Nii Amarh Amarteifio, had said.
They then announced that they were commencing the final phase of the audit and claimed it has completed about 80% of the claims submitted by its clients for payment.
The auditing exercise, the company said, formed part of a roadmap of payment of its debt.
“Gold collectibles trading claims supporting documents received within the 28th October, 2019 and 28th November, 2019 period for rigorous audit purposes are about eighty per cent (80%) complete,” the statement had said.
They claimed that some of the claims for payment were inconsistent comparative to dates, figures and amounts received as returns on the gold collectibles trades with the agreed sum stipulated in the signed and sealed “Gold Sale and Purchase Agreements.”
They had further indicated that invitations would be extended to some individuals between October 3, 2021 to December 6, 2021 for interactions in a bid to justify discrepancies or irregularities.
“This session would be traders/claimants interviews to fully ascertain facts and satisfy ourselves with regards to questionable adverse discrepancies and irregularities that characterise some transaction claims received for audit and its subsequent payment,” it had added, saying “we shall then proceed to compile a list of all alleged conspirators/persons (purported clients, Menzgold and Brew Marketing staff members), in a petition to the Criminal Investigation Department arm of the Ghana Police Service for further investigations and possible prosecution.”
“Menzgold shall proceed to pay the final publicised list and total sum from 20th December, 2021 to 30th June, 2022 in our quest to give final closure to this very depressing matter and to restore our dear enviable company’s integrity,” it had added.