The charges, initially 39 counts, include selling gold without a license, operating a deposit-taking business, inducement to invest, defrauding by pretenses, fraudulent breach of trust, and money laundering involving the sum of over GH₵340 million.
Former Menzgold owner, Nana Appiah Mensah, popularly known as NAM 1, must answer to 35 counts of illegally selling gold, and many other charges, a High Court ruled on Thursday, directing that the accused opens his defence on July 23.
The court, presided over by Justice Ernest Owusu-Dapaah, said it appears NAM1 and Brew Marketing Consult (one of the companies he owned) did not possess a valid licence to engage in the sale and purchase of gold and that the prosecution has been successful in proving a prima facie case after calling nine witnesses.
“The receipts tendered by the witnesses were not personal jewellery but were real gold and thus the accused did not have the license to deal in gold in the manner they did. Brew Marketing Consult is unknown to the minerals commission to purchase gold. Based on the evidence presented, it appears that the accused persons did not possess a valid license,” the court said.
The charges, initially 39 counts, include selling gold without a license, operating a deposit-taking business, inducement to invest, defrauding by pretences, fraudulent breach of trust, and money laundering involving the sum of over GH₵340 million.
Prosecutors told the court three counts had to be dropped because witnesses were unavailable to testify.
On the charge of inducement to invest, the court noted that using celebrities like Stonebwoy, Becca, Jocelyn Dumas, and Jackie Appiah on billboards, NAM 1 appeared to influence the public to invest in Menzgold and Brew Marketing.
NAM 1 has however maintained a not-guilty plea since the new charges were filed last year by the Attorney-General.
He has been facing prosecution since 2019 after his gold dealership firm, Menzgold collapsed, when authorities said he breached regulatory procedures, to operate a business that took the form of a Ponzi scheme.
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