Nana Appiah Mensah aka NAM 1
The woes of businessman, Nana Appiah Mensah alias NAM1 and his two companies – Menzgold Ghana Limited and Brew Marketing Consult Ghana Limited, have worsened as the Attorney General has filed charges of fraudulent transactions against them.
NAM1 and Menzgold have been charged for inducing members of the public to invest a total of GH¢1,680,920,000 in the company by claiming that the company was registered to take gold deposits in return for profits, a statement which was misleading.
The three have been charged with a total of thirty-nine counts – one count of selling gold without licence, one count of operating deposit-taking business, one count of inducement to invest, 22 counts of defrauding by false pretence, seven counts of fraudulent breach of trust and seven counts of money laundering.
The allegations levelled against them relates to them defrauding their customers various sums of monies ranging between GH¢20 million and GH¢243 million between 2016 and 2018.
NAM1, his company and wife were standing trial at the Circuit Court in Accra on a charge sheet filed in 2019, but the case had to be adjourned countless times due to the case docket being sent to the Office of the Attorney General for study and advice.
The new charge sheet, filed at the registry of the Criminal Division of the High Court in Accra, indicates that NAM1 and Menzgold Limited between 2016 and 2018 with intent to defraud, obtained the consent of Angelina Vander-Pallen to part with GH¢20,00,060 by claiming Brew Marketing Consult as a company licensed to sell gold deposit in return for the profit on the value of the gold deposit, although they knew the claim was false.
The charge sheet also names others who invested in the company as Beatrice Owusu-Ansah, GH¢188 million; George Owusu, GH¢10 million; Benjamin Aduse Poku, GH¢20 million; Boakye Emmanuel, GH¢20 million; Eunice Quartey, GH¢120 million and Focus Life Properties, GH¢8.3 million.
Others are Bernard Kwasi Mornyuie, GH¢243,077,793; Serwaa Akoto Owusu-Ansah, GH¢16 million; Martin Okai-Armah, GH¢24 million and Richard Otoo, GH¢60 million.
Court documents also indicate that NAM1, Menzgold and Brew Consult between 2016 and 2018 dishonestly appropriated a total of GH¢105,890,811 of depositors’ money to Zylofon Media, a company related to NAM1.
The documents also state that NAM1 and Menzgold between October 2017 and July 2018 dishonestly appropriated a total of GH¢132,142,141.3 million which was entrusted to them on behalf of Menzgold for the benefit of its depositors, by causing the money to be transferred to NAM1.
The charge sheet also adds that GH¢66 million of depositors’ funds invested in Menzgold was transferred to Abigail Mensah between July 2018 and August 2018, for the benefit of NAM1 and his companies.
Facts
The fact of the case filed at the registry of the court by the Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, indicates that NAM1 operated Menzgold as a deposit-taking business under the guise of trading gold, without the requisite licence.
It said the Bank of Ghana (BoG) on March 11, 2015, issued a public notice to the effect that ‘Menzbank’ was an unlicensed deposit-taking institution, but NAM1 in a bid to circumvent the BoG notice changed the company’s name from Menzbank to Menzbanc and then later to Menzgold in 2017.
The facts said NAM1’s business module was that Brew Consult sold gold, gold collectibles or gold ore to the public for the purpose of investing same in Menzgold when Brew Consult was not licensed to operate as such.
It said the Minerals Commission on August 22, 2016, granted Menzgold a three-year licence to purchase gold from small-scale miners for export only, but the company breached its restricted licence by selling gold to persons in Ghana.
The documents said NAM1 and Menzgold in 2016, established what they called gold vault market which provided the public with a platform to trade in gold and gold collectibles, and the two in an attempt to circumvent the requirements of the law, set up Brew Consult for the purposes of selling gold to the public to enable Menzgold to take the gold deposits.
They point out that between 2017 and 2018, NAM1 and Menzgold invited members of the public to purchase gold and gold collectibles from Brew Consult and deposit same with Menzgold, promising a profit margin between 7% and 10%.
“In response to this invitation, over 16,000 members of the public deposited huge sums of money with the expectation that they were dealing with an authorised deposit-taking business which would guarantee them the returns as advertised by the accused persons,” the documents disclosed.
The documents indicate that NAM1 and Menzgold continued with their operations despite several engagements and warning notices issued by the relevant agencies while investors started facing challenges either with delayed payments or reduced dividends; a number of cheques issued by the two were also dishonoured.
Between November 2016 and March 2019, customers of the company petitioned the police and complained that they had invested huge sums of money but were unable to realise their investments.
The documents add that investigations revealed that the three accused under false pretence took a total of GH¢1,680,920,000 from their customers, which the customers have not recovered.
The investigations also reveal that huge sums of depositors’ funds were transferred from Menzgold and Brew Consult to the personal account of NAM1 for his use.