Fifty-three soldiers have dragged Menzgold Ghana Limited, a gold
dealership company, to the High Court for failing to pay back their
total investment of GHS2.5 million.
The
plaintiffs — from the Ghana Navy, the Ghana Air Force and the Ghana Army
— are praying the High Court to order a refund of their money.
According to the plaintiffs, all efforts to retrieve the money had been unsuccessful.
They
are, per the writ of summons issued on December 12, 2018, accordingly
praying the court to order a refund of their money, ranging between
GHS18,000 and GHS244,000.
The amounts quoted on the filed court documents represent the plaintiffs’ principal.
Plaintiffs
are arguing that even if the defendant claims that it cannot pay their
interest, they are entitled to their principals.
Plaintiffs’ case
A
statement of claim accompanying the writ of summons stated, inter alia,
that the defendant, through advertisements and its agents, reached out
to the Ghanaian public to subscribe to its services.
It
said the plaintiffs took advantage of the advertisements and subscribed
to the defendant’s services by investing various sums of money in 2018.
According
to the statement, the agreement between the plaintiffs and the company
entitled them to 10 per cent returns on their investment for those who
invested GHS24,000 and above and a minimum of seven per cent for those
who invested below GHS24,000.
It said the agreement was for 12 months, after which investors were permitted to terminate or to reactivate their investments.
According
to the statement of claim, the defendant company paid the interest,
popularly known as extra value, but stopped sometime in August 2018 and
had since failed to either pay the interest or refund their principal.
The plaintiffs, according to the statement, on several occasions attempted to retrieve their money but they hit a snag.
“Plaintiffs have approached the defendant countless times but they are always met with excuses and postponement,” it said.
Sweat and tears
Describing
themselves as hardworking men and women of the Ghana Armed Forces, the
plaintiffs contended that they had invested their “sweat and tears” in
the defendant company.
They
said they were worried that their hard-earned money from what they
termed as “sleepless treks and peacekeeping missions” was what they had
invested in Menzgold.
The plaintiffs, therefore, prayed the court to direct the defendant company to refund their investments.
Substituted service
The plaintiffs have, since the issuance of the writ of summons, been unsuccessful in serving it on the gold-trading company.
Following from that, their counsel, Mr Yaw Owusu Anane-Asante, on 8 January 2019 filed an application for substituted service.
The
court, presided over by Mr Justice Jerome Noble Nkrumah, has ordered
that the writ of summons, the statement of claim and the order for
substituted service be served on the defendant via the notice board of
the High Court, be published in the dailies and on the notice boards of
the last known office of the defendant.
The notices are to last for 14 days.
Meanwhile,
the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has frozen the accounts
of the Chief Executive Officer of Menzgold, Nana Appiah Mensah (NAM1),
with immediate effect.
Last
Monday, a special delegation of security operatives left Accra for
Dubai in connection with Nana Mensah’s arrest in Dubai, the United Arab
Emirates (UAE).
Again,
some aggrieved customers of Menzgold are asking the government to, as a
matter of urgency, secure a court order to temporarily take over the
offices of the company (rented or owned) to prevent the owner and his
accomplices from moving funds from vaults containing huge sums of money
outside to unknown destinations.
The
Bank of Ghana and the Securities and Exchange Commission had, in the
past, issued a series of warnings to the public to desist from dealing
with the company because it had not been licensed.
Source: Daily Graphic