The comments ascribed to Maame Tiwa Addo-Danquah, Executive Director of the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), have angered clients of the now-defunct gold collectibles company Menzgold, who have called them a national catastrophe.
Customers who feel mistreated claim that it is a national catastrophe that Nana Appiah Mensah, the beleaguered CEO of Menzgold, cannot be prosecuted.
“What was the motive of the government in arraigning the CEO of Menzgold when they know the man cannot be prosecuted?” the aggrieved customers quizzed.
On August 22, 2022, Frederick Forson, a representative for the irate customers, stated, “It has always been our belief that the government was not committed to having Nana Appiah Mensah, commonly known as NAM1, prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to others,” in an interview with Mr. Emmanuel Quarshie (The Hitman) on the Ghana Yensom morning show on Accra 100.5 FM.
According to him, the government’s approach to prosecuting NAM1 has always been the same as that of Maame Tiwa Addo-Danquah.
“It is the reason we earlier threatened to withdraw our support for the prosecution,” he said.
“As customers, we stand vindicated that the government was not committed to prosecuting the CEO of Menzgold,” he explained.
He asserted that 183 consumers have already died as a result of the government’s failure to pay out their locked-up monies. He accused the administration of misleading the customers.
The Securities and Exchange Commission halted Menzgold’s operations in September 2018.
The Minerals Commission of Ghana canceled the company’s operating license, which had been initially given in 2014 and had been largely for gold trade and export. However, when rumors of a gold investment scheme with huge returns spread, the Bank of Ghana started to issue warnings, advising people to avoid doing business with the firm and advising the firm to refrain from accepting cash deposits.
Since the closure, Menzgold customers have been unable to access their deposits and have staged multiple fruitless demonstrations at its various branches.
