On July 10, Nana Appiah Mensah, also known as NAM1, will appear in court where the judge will decide whether the prosecution has proven the charges against him. NAM1, the CEO of the now-defunct Menzgold Ghana Limited, is accused of defrauding his customers by disregarding the Bank of Ghana’s directive, which prohibited Menzgold from accepting deposits. If the offences are proven, he will have to open his defence in court.
Menzgold Ghana Limited and Brew Marketing Consult Ghana Limited, entities owned by Nana Appiah Mensah aka NAM 1, have been charged with selling gold without a licence, operating a deposit-taking business without a licence, defrauding by false pretence, fraudulent breach of trust, inducement to invest, and money laundering.
On Tuesday, when prosecution and defence lawyers appeared in court together with the accused person and some of his victims, the lawyers in a lengthy argument, took turns to highlight their written submissions on whether the accused is innocent or he has questions to answer.
Tuesday’s argument was occasioned by an application of no case filed by lawyers for Nana Appiah Mensah, who after listening to testimonies by the nine witnesses called by prosecution, said they believed their client is innocent.
Lead Counsel for the accused, Kwame Akuffo in his submission to the court said despite the loud complaints outside the court by persons who have allegedly been defrauded by his client, “only eight people have come to court “; arguing that if indeed the number of victims are as huge as has been portrayed, they should have come to court.
Focusing more on the charges brought against NAM 1, Kwame Akuffo contended that the prosecution cannot in the same breath charge his client for money laundering and defrauding by false pretence, and that stealing and money laundering are mutually exclusive.
He said they have presented documents to the court that shows that NAM 1 paid taxes to the state during the period of his operation, and that the prosecution has so far failed to show that the accused person didn’t have license to sell gold.
In a counter argument, the prosecution contended that Brew Marketing consult, one of NAM 1’s businesses he allegedly used to defraud his victims, is unknown to the Minerals Commission of Ghana to either purchase or export gold.
Menzgold on the other hand, according to prosecution, can only purchase and export minerals, and not operate as a deposit-taking business without license from the Bank of Ghana .
They argued that on the count of inducement to invest, NAM 1 engaged in advertisements by contracting celebrities. Advertisements, which according to prosecution, got huge responses from the public.
In all of this, according to the prosecution, NAM 1 knew that whatever he was churning out in the advertisement were false .
The prosecution in a response to an argument about the negligible number of witnesses presented by the state, said “even one witness is enough to convict Nana Appiah Mensah”.
The prosecution rounded up their submission by contending that the defence lawyers “nailed their own client when they tendered into evidence a number of customers who were defrauded by Nana Appiah Mensah and Menzgold.”
NAM1, who is currently on a GH¢500 million bail with four sureties, has so far pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
By: Latif Iddrisu
