Nana Appiah Mensah aka Nam 1
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the embattled gold collectibles firm, Menzgold Ghana, Nana Appiah Mensah, popularly called NAM1, is set to appear in court in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on February 2, 2019.
He was arrested in the UAE on December 7, 2018 over an alleged $51 million gold deal with an Emirati firm – Horizon Royal Diamond.
Officials of Horizon Royal Diamond with whom NAM 1 traded gold are alleged to have plotted his arrest when he visited Dubai to retrieve an amount of $31 million reportedly owed him by the company.
An eight-member delegation led by the Deputy Attorney General left the country recently to visit him in Dubai between 16th and 18th January, 2019.
Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, told journalists at a press briefing in Accra last week that the purpose of the delegation’s visit was to assess the allegations against NAM1 and to see how best to extradite him to Ghana.
But unfortunately, the delegation returned to Ghana without the embattled CEO.
The Ghana Police Service and Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), in a joint statement issued upon their return, said: “It is the understanding of the Ghanaian delegation that Mr. Mensah faces misdemeanour charges in the UAE and will be available to Ghana upon the final determination of his current matter in the UAE.”
The statement, signed by the Director General of Public Affairs at the Ghana Police Service, ACP David Eklu, added that “his case is due for court on February 2, 2019.”
It said EOCO and Ghana Police Service were already investigating NAM1 for possible misdemeanour in breach of Banks and Specialized Deposit-Taking Institution Act 2016 Act 930.
Background
According to reports, some 46,000 individuals have their funds locked at Menzgold.
The woes of Menzgold began after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in a letter dated September 7, 2018, directed it to suspend its gold trading operations with the public.
SEC, at the time, said the directive was based on the fact that Menzgold had been dealing in the purchase and deposit of gold collectibles from the public and issuing contracts with guaranteed returns with clients without a valid licence from the commission.
The regulatory agency averred that the move was in contravention of Section 109 of Act 929 with consequences under Section 2016 (I) of the same Act.
BY Melvin Tarlue