An Accra Circuit Court presided over by Ellen Asamoah has adjourned the case involving Nana Appiah Mensah, popularly known as NAM1, and two others, to 7 September 2020.

It followed a request by the prosecutor for more time to enable the team to prepare the case and offer further advice to the court on the matter.

NAM1, the Chief Executive Officer of the now-defunct gold dealership firm, Menzgold, is facing charges of defrauding by false pretence.

The prosecutor was expected to have filed new charges against NAM1 so the court could take his plea today, Monday, 20 July 2020 but ASP Sylvester Asare told the court that the principal state attorney was working to advise the court concerning the case and prayed for a long adjournment.

The court, therefore, adjourned the case to Monday, 7 September 2020.

Facts

The facts, as presented by ASP Asare, are that in October 2018, the police received a complaint from about 16,000 people that Menzgold had convinced them to invest GHS1.68 billion in a gold purchase scheme that yielded 10 per cent monthly interest.

According to him, the complainants said their money were locked up and that they could not find Nana Appiah Mensah and the other principal officers of the company.

The prosecutor said investigations revealed that Menzgold and Brew Marketing Consult were incorporated as limited liability companies in 2013 and 2016, respectively.

Menzgold, he said, 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, Nana Mensah founded Brew Marketing Consult to be a gold buying agent.

ASP Asare said 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, he said, Menzgold went public after its incorporation and invited the public to deposit money for a fixed period with interest, on the pretext of gold purchasing.

The prosecutor said further investigations revealed that the three accused persons were the directors and principal officers of Menzgold and Brew Marketing Consult.

Background

NAM1 was released from police custody on August 17, 2019, after meeting his revised bail conditions.

Earlier, the court had varied the bail conditions to allow for five sureties to guarantee his bail without showing evidence of having properties worth the GHS1 billion bail sum.

The court, however, refused a request by counsel for Nana Appiah for a reduction in the bail sum from GHS1 billion to GHS20 million.

Hitherto, the court had ordered, on July 26, 2019, that three of the five sureties should show justification, meaning they must show proof that they had properties or interests worth the GHS1 billion bail sum.

As part of the bail conditions, the Menzgold CEO was ordered to report himself to the Ghana Police Service every Wednesday.