Aggrieved Customers of Menzgold Ghana Limited are demanding a publication of the names of customers supposedly paid by the struggling firm.
This follows a claim by the embattled CEO of the company, Nana Appiah Mensah to the effect that, some payments to the tune of GHC 9.6 million have been made to customers.
At a press conference in Accra, the General Secretary of the Coalition of Aggrieved Menzgold Customers, Samuel Odartey, described the claim as false
“Here is a company whose account and assets including his Trassaco residence according to official reports by EOCO have been frozen. Where did NAM1 get the money to pay GHS 9.6 million and how was the payment done? He is at it again throwing dust into the eyes of the unsuspecting public,” he said.
The customers also questioned the decision of Nana Appiah Mensah’s signing of a new artiste unto his music label under his Zylofon Media Company.
“This signing ceremony which was organized with grandeur, pomp and pageantry and in the full glare of our state authorities, occurs whiles some victims of Menzgold continue to die. Currently, 55 deaths have occurred among Menzgold customers. It is very sad. It is not surprising that NAM1, the father of Menzgold has got enough money to sign on artistes and go on spending while victims of Menzgold continue to die,” he added.
Background
On June 14, 2020, Nana Appiah Mensah announced that he has paid over GHS 9.6 million to a number of customers.
He was responding to claims that he has neglected persons he owes to sign on a new artiste onto his Zylofon Music record label.
He also stated that Menzgold and Zylofon are two different entities and that comparing the two is an “incredible display of intellectual deficiency or bankruptcy.”
The company since its collapse in 2018 following a suspension order from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has been struggling to refund monies invested by the customers.
Last year, Mr. Appiah Mensah, said close to 200 customers of the company had received their locked-up funds, a claim the customers disputed.
The criminal case
Nana Appiah Mensah is however facing trial for allegedly defrauding over 16,000 people to the tune of over GH¢1, 6 80,920,000 in a gold purchase scheme that yielded 10 per cent monthly interest.
Investigations revealed that Menzgold and Brew Marketing Consult were incorporated as limited liability companies in 2013 and 2016 respectively.
Menzgold obtained a licence from the Minerals Commission in August 2016, to purchase and export gold from small-scale miners and that in order to successfully engage in the business, Mr. Appiah Mensah founded Brew Marketing Consult to be a gold buying agent.
Prosecutors say although Menzgold was licensed to purchase gold, it was not licensed by the Minerals Commission to trade in gold.
Notwithstanding the lack of such a licence, prosecutors say Menzgold went public after its incorporation and invited members of the public to deposit money for a fixed period with interest on the pretext of gold purchasing.
Further investigations revealed that Mensah, Tetteh and Appiah, were the directors and principal officers of both Menzgold Ghana Limited and Brew Marketing Consult.
He was granted bail by an Accra Circuit Court in July 2019 to the tune of GHS1 Billion after he was arrested and remanded, but the case appears to have slowed down, leaving Menzgold customers more frustrated.
