Pay us now and deal with court issues later – Customers of Blackshield to SEC

Some disgruntled customers of defunct Gold Coast Fund Management Limited, now Blackshield Capital, want government to find ways to pay them their locked up funds regardless of the outstanding legal issues.

The calls come following the Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent announcement that no affected fund management firm customer will be excluded in government’s bailout package.

In its August 28 press release, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) explained that payment processes for 22 of the fund management companies will commence in September, while payment for clients of Blackshield and others will only begin after their liquidation orders are secured.

But according to customers of Blackshield Capital, this arrangement is unfair. They are thus asking SEC to include them in the package to assuage their plight.

The National Secretary of the Coalition of Aggrieved Fund Management Customers, Joseph Aryeetey, in an interview with Citi Business News, said, “Issues about economic rights are human right issues. If we are going to continue these legalities back and forth, [it wouldn’t help]. My point is; why is SEC engaging in this public banter? I think we should move away from this. This is not what will bring us our money. At the end of the day, people are dying.”

80-year-old Kwesi Silvius Gilbert-Arthur, also stressed on the need for the government to stop the excessive paperwork procedures and just pay them their funds.

“Whatever is happening, we don’t believe in any red-tapeism. We are dying. Nana Addo; please let us have our bailout. Forget about all the paperwork. The best is to just dish out some money to us; then you can go and see the red-tapeism people.”

“Since January, our brothers, sisters, and other elderly people have been struggling. Some of them have medical conditions. If Gold Coast is willing to work with SEC, then they should come out publicly. We don’t want to see it on paper. They should come out publicly and tell the government that they are ready to work with SEC. There are too many hidden tactics, and we the old people don’t have time for hidden tactics or unnecessary diversions,” he insisted.

Meanwhile, the SEC in its latest release says none of the affected customers of the defunct companies will be excluded in the government’s bailout package.

The earlier indication that only customers of 22 defunct companies were going to benefit in the first phase of the bailout due to ongoing legal cases with Blackshield Capital Management Limited and the others, led to agitation among affected clients, who ended up picketing at the premises of the Ministry of Finance on September 1, 2020.

But the SEC in a statement on Wednesday, September 2, 2020, clarified that its earlier statement explaining that its communication on the bailout package had been misinterpreted.