Nana Appiah Mensah aka NAM1
The unannounced manhunt for the brain behind arguably the most scathing Ponzi scandal to hit the country has heightened.
This comes on the heels of the now palpable bail jump by Nana Appiah Mensah, aka NAM1.
NAM1, who has disappeared from the radar of Ghana’s intelligence community and his numerous customers strewn across Accra and Kumasi, is strongly believed to be holed up in Dubai after jumping bail under bizarre circumstances.
The bail jump has triggered many questions about the propriety of the granting of the relief.
News about his Dubai rendezvous comes on the heels of conflicting reports on social media that he had been arrested in Enugu State of Nigeria and was on the verge of being repatriated to the country.
NAM1 is reported to have been involved in another gold related scandal in Dubai, a report which was picked from non-local sources.
With his family, which domiciled in Ghana from the onset of the gold collectible scheme, not present in the country at the moment, speculations are rife that he has joined them wherever they may be, with South Africa being one of the possible destinations.
A source told DAILY GUIDE that the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has initiated measures to arrest the suspect perhaps using Interpol to achieve this goal.
Ghanaians abroad have also expressed interest in leaking information about his whereabouts.
Some of their investments found their way to Menzgold through proxies in Ghana.
It is unclear how NAM1 fled the country after he was invited for questioning by EOCO and granted self-cognisance bail.
With no information forthcoming regarding the seizure of his passport, the subject is left to an assortment of speculations and conjectures.
It would be interesting to find out how he was able to flee the country; questions as to why his travel document was not seized to obviate the situation in which investigators find themselves now are being posed.
Hint of the man’s bail jump was brought to the front burner after Gabby Asare Otchere Darko alluded to the breach on his Facebook wall.
The information jolted victims of the sleaze, including security agents, to the reality of their fate.
“Let’s smoke them out wherever they are, and throw the book at them! While I will not want a pesewa of my tax money to be involved with this Ponzi matter. I believe majority of Ghanaians will agree with me that the law must come down heavily on those who use such schemes to destroy the lives of many people,” he added.
The Menzgold sleaze is threatening many persons who deposited monies with the company, some of them demanding that government should intervene with a compensation package which has been dismissed by the Information Minister.
The protests by some of the about one million victims of the Ponzi scheme recently entrenched the subject on the public space and provided impetus for opposition politicians to release sometimes outlandish speculations, all of which have been refuted by government.
The seven victims, who were arrested following their participation in the demonstration, have since been granted bail, as police investigate the matter.
The gold collectible company, which started operating in breach of Bank of Ghana (BoG) standards, soon grew beyond its seams and earned the status of a major financial player in the public space.
The word of caution sounded by the regulator was not digested by the customers who were too excited by the prospects until its collapse.
Perhaps this latest Ponzi scandal to hit the country would provide better lessons than its predecessors. The Pyrams, R5s, DKMs and God Is Loves and what befell them did not do much to keep many Ghanaians from Ponzi scheme in their various faces.
The September 7, 2018, warning by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to the company to stop its gold trading operations was unheeded.
It did not also provide a warning signal to its victims as the list of customers swelled beyond expectation.
An order from the Kumasi Circuit Court for the sale of Menzgold’s assets in some suburbs of the Garden City was the last straw to break the camel’s back, having exposed a major fault line in the operation of the Ponzi scheme.
By A.R. Gomda