Ghanaian Economist, Professor Stephen Adei, has described Menzgold as a Ponzi scheme which should not have been patronized by Ghanaians.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), directed Menzgold to shut down its investment operations on 12 September 2018 for contravening the Securities Industry Act, 2016 (Act 929).

The SEC order also warned Menzgold to halt advertising and desist from creating new contracts on its business which promised 10% monthly profits for customers who invested in their gold vault market.

The company has failed to pay its customers the extra values since then and have been unable to pay customers their principals after series of demonstrations.

The CEO of Menzgold Ghana Limited Nana Appiah Mensah (NAM1), is currently being held in Dubai for unrelated criminal offence and police are working on his extradition to face charges after some clients of Menzgold filed criminal charges.

The police are on a manhunt for other directors of Menzgold including the wife and sister of NAM1.

Commenting on the development in an interview on Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Thursday, 24 January 2019, the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Ashesi University was emphatic that Menzgold “was a ponzi scheme. Anybody who thinks that you will go to a financial institution and get 10% a month, 120% if you didn’t even compound them in a year [is wrong] …and many people were warned individually and other things and they will say that ‘if you are afraid you will not gain’”.

He added: “Basically, this boy (NAM1) was quite smart and most thieves and crooks are very smart. He saw a regulatory gap between the Bank of Ghana and SEC [and exploited it]”.

In his view “it was something which no rational person should think that you can invest in gold or whatever and get 120% per annum while everyday the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation posts gold prices and there are no [significant] changes [in price]”.

He further cautioned against playing politics with the issue as the matter at hand should not be treated as a National Democratic Congress (NDC) or New Patriotic Party (NPP) problem.

“We should stop the nonsense of politicization of this. It is a criminal case,” he reiterated.

Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com/91.3FM