Nana Appiah Mensah
There appears to be confusion over disbursement
of funds by Menzgold Ghana to its customers.
While management of the embattled gold
collectibles firm says nearly 200 customers of the company have been paid their
funds which were locked up for months, some customers have vehemently denied
receiving such monies.
The Communications Director of Menzgold Ghana,
Nii Armah Amarteifio, had in an interview with the media claimed that the
company had started payments to its customers. He revealed that about 200
customers are part of the first batch to have been paid.
He noted, “I can confirm to you that by the grace
of God we commenced payment and we were able to pay 200 people today. I will
not give you a range but I can tell you for a fact that as we promised our
customers that we will commence payment on the 27th December (that
is today), we have been able to do that and by the grace of God we’ve been able
to pay about 200 people, who fall in the zero category as we indicated in our
press statement.”
“You will be called first; a call will be
placed to you and you will be asked to confirm your bank account number and if
that is done, the money is transferred into your account; that is done by the
third party. The most important thing is that we are making payments to
customers and today we were able to make payments to about 200 customers,” he
added.
An aggrieved customer who pleaded anonymity
told the media that “we do not know which people have received their cash
because we are in a WhatsApp group and our leaders have not indicated to us that
payment has commenced.”
Again, one other customer said, “It is not
true; no one has sent us messages or called us to inform us about commencement of
payment. They claim they have started paying but none of our members has confirmed
the receipt of any cash.”
Menzgold was closed down in 2018 following its
legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which started in
September 2017.
SEC had described the deposit-taking business
of Menzgold as illegal and ordered it to suspend its operations.
Despite the several challenges it has faced in
recent years including the arrest and detention of its Chief Executive Officer,
Nana Appiah Mensah, aka NAM1, in Dubai over alleged gold scam, the company pledged
to begin payment to customers from December 27, 2019. That was in spite of
opposition by some of its customers.
It would be recalled that in a December 18,
2019 statement, the company had asked its lawyers to make payments to
customers.
In the statement, it noted that “claims shall
be settled in full and shall be subject to an invitation from our legal team:
Kwame Akuffo & Co. Unlimited strictly following scheduled order.”
Lawyers’ Position
But, in a response, its lawyers indicated that
they did not have the “capacity” to pay customers’ locked up cash.
Menzgold has approximately 4,600 customers.
BY Melvin Tarlue
