Mr. Fred Forson, the convener of Menzgold Customers, has stated that after the collapse of the company, 179 of its customers have died with several others suffering from various ailments.
“It’s sad that we have lost some people and 179 people have already died and many others are down with various degrees of injury,” he said whilst speaking on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM on Tuesday.
The aggrieved customers have been doing all in their power to retrieve their investments since 2018 when the firm was shut down by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to SEC in a letter dated September 7, 2018, it had thoroughly investigated the activities of Menzgold and had found that Menzgold owned by Nana Appiah Mensah does not have the license to trade in gold collectibles from the public.
Since then, all efforts by the customers to retrieve their investments have proven futile.
These aggrieved customers have also accused the Government of Ghana of failing to protect funds of the investors, a development that continues to deepen their hopelessness as the days go by.
Meanwhile, they still have the optimism that their funds will be retrieved.
“The money is not lost but, sadly, we lost all those people,” the convenor of the group bemoaned.
About three years ago, the Attorney-General commenced the prosecution of Menzgold’s Chief Executive Officer, Nana Appiah Mensah.
He was accused of defrauding thousands of customers through his gold dealership firm over millions of cedis.
Yet not a single ‘victim’ has testified in the case, which has witnessed more than 20 adjournments.
Meanwhile, some sources within the A-G’s office say there are aspects of the case that require fine-tuning, hence, the delay.
The Customers are calling for the prosecution of the founder of the firm, NAM 1, to be suspended.
They want the case to be made a civil one, instead of a criminal case; to enable them to lead the prosecution themselves which according to them, will fast-track the process of retrieving their monies.