Nana Appiah Mensah aka NAM1
A single mother of four children, yesterday testified about how Chief Executive Officer of defunct Menzgold Ghana Limited, Nana Appiah Mensah, aka NAM1, pulled a gun on customers of the company who had gone to his residence to demand their money.
Priscilla Adu-Boateng, the prosecution’s fifth witness, also stated the toll her locked up funds in the company is having on her business and family life.
The witness also stated that she invested a total of GH¢760,000 in the collapsed companies between July 2017 and July 2018, and has not been able to retrieve her investments.
Her witness statement which was adopted by the court as her evidence-in-chief also detailed the ordeal she and other disgruntled customers went through when they went to the Trassaco residence of NAM1 to demand their locked up funds.
“On January 8, 2020, he pulled out a gun when we went to his house in Trassaco to demand our monies,” the witness indicated.
NAM1 and two of his companies – Menzgold Ghana Limited and Brew Marketing Consult Ghana Limited are facing 39 counts of defrauding by false pretence, inducing members of the public to invest and money laundering.
The embattled businessman, who is representing his two companies, has pleaded not guilty to all the 39 charges and has been granted bail by the court.
Madam Adu-Boateng, a trader from Kasoa in the Central Region, indicated in her witness statement that “I am a single mother with four children, and these investments were made in furtherance of their education.”
She, however, stated that her business is not thriving, and she is in the process of selling her house to make ends meet.
Recounting why she invested in the defunct company, she said “the advertising billboard of Menzgold attracted me to invest. An executive of Menzgold also persuaded me for about a year before I decided to invest in it.”
Madam Adu-Boateng indicated that on July 21, 2017, she made a deposit of GH¢24,000 to Brew Marketing Consult at a 10% interest rate for a period of 12 months.
She then paid an additional GH¢1,200 to Menzgold, being a non-refundable commission payment for 12 pounds of gold.
On September 6, 2017, she made another deposit of GH¢30,000 to Brew Marketing Consult at a 10% interest rate for a period of 12 months.
She also made a deposit of GH¢100,000 on November 2, another GH¢200,000 on June 20, 2018, and GH¢200,000 on July 31, 2018 to Brew Marketing Consult at a 12% interest rate for a period of six months.
“In September 2018, Menzgold Company and Brew Marketing collapsed, and since then all hope has been lost,” the witness indicated.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak