Afeku sues US woman

Catherine Afeku, the former Member of Parliament (MP) for the Evalue-Gwira constituency in the Western Region, has launched a law suit against Bill and Patricia Gicks, the American couple who accused her of defrauding them to the tune of $217,000.

Catherine Afeku exclusively told DAILY GUIDE on Tuesday that her counter-suit “is already in motion” in Atlanta, USA and the couple should “be prepared to receive their summons and prepare to be called by a Federal Court in Atlanta.”

She told this paper that she had employed the services of a lawyer based in the USA and had given her close associate the Power of Attorney to set the counter-suit against the American couple in motion.

According to Catherine Afeku, she would have not pursued the case, but the long concluded case was mysteriously resurrected by her political opponents in the Evalue-Gwira District to taint her reputation. The issue, since last week, had generated intense public and media interest.

The former MP told DAILY GUIDE that it was time she set the records straight about some underhand dealings the American couple was involved in.

According to her, Bill and Patricia Gicks had cleverly taken advantage of the Ghanaian legal system in making the damning claims against her and as a result, they had violated American Federal laws.

She accused the American couple of using the non-profit organisation, Polymath Enterprise Limited, to ship computers, cars and other accessories into Ghana tax-free.

She also accused the Americans of relocating their blind son to Ghana and yet claiming invalid allowance for him in Ghana from the America government.

“Some of these incidents should help eradicate the perception that indeed there was any fraudulent act on my part. If any, it was more on the lady’s [Patricia Gicks] part, because to have a 501(3)(C) [American code under which charitable organisations are registered] in America for you to procure computers for helping Africans, then coming into the Ghanaian court system to claim expenses is immoral,” she charged.

“We know that the US government listens to Ghanaian media. Is it a federal offence for an American citizen who is on SSI (US federal code for categorising invalids) to live in Africa and still receive the check and how were they being signed by the mother? Those are the questions that the person calling somebody a fraudster should be answering.”

But in a telephone conversation with DAILY GUIDE from the USA on Tuesday, Patricia Gicks denied the claims Mrs. Afeku was making, saying, “It was a business arrangement … Half of the business was to be a charitable contribution for schools, which never took place. There was the other half of the business which was an established Internet café which was for profit; yes it was for profit and how that is handled in Untied States is entirely up to our tax codes, not up to Catherine.

“I will like to refer you to the court case where you can see that we do not revise history and when you tell lies, it’s hard to remember them, so I should refer you to the documents of the court case where everything was tried in front of a judge and she [Catherine Afeku] was found to be guilty,” she stated.

In 2007, an Accra High Court, presided over by Justice Barbara Ackah-Yensu, found the ex-MP and her husband, Seth Afeku, guilty of fraud and ordered them to pay the US couple, Patricia and Bill Gick US$217,464 plus interest.

“….we have been very diplomatic, very law abiding citizens complying with the judgement. But the loopholes; every time they try to bring something up in the media, it also gives us this impetus to bring out some of the things we said repeatedly in court,” she told DAILY GUIDE.

“My fight is to get my side of the story for people to know that we didn’t defraud anybody,” saying that the Americans with whom she jointly set up the business which was later converted into a non-profit organisation, used it as a “conduit of a charitable mission” to make profit and to circumvent tax regimes in Ghana.

Apparently, Mrs. Afeku, a former resident in the US, was a close friend of Patricia Gicks, and around 2004, the two decided to jointly set up an Information Communication Technology (ICT) centre in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region called Cybernautix Internet Café, and in the cause of the planning, it was decided that Mrs. Afeku was to come down to Ghana, alongside the invalid son of the Gicks-David Thomas, to set up and manage the business.

The shareholding partnership was arranged at 60 per cent to 40 per cent for Patricia and Bill Gicks and Catherine Afeku and David Thomas respectfully.

But the embattled former MP told DAILY GUIDE the problems with the arrangement started when profit inflows into the business started to decline, so they mutually decided to convert the business into a non-profit interest called Polymath Enterprises Limited. The company was involved with world computer charity-World Computer Exchange-, in shipping donated computers to the “poor youth” in Ghana.

Bill and Patricia Gicks duly financed the business by providing equipment and materials to the tune of $217,462.00, a Mitsubishi Diamante Saloon car and monies. Mrs. Afeku further told DAILY GUIDE that Mrs. Gicks also regularly sent financial upkeep to her son in Ghana.

According to the former MP, she believed that the underlying reason why the Gicks decided to relocate their son, who was legally considered blind or invalid in the USA, was to “get rid of him”, however, she used her influence with the chiefs and elders in the Axim area in the Western Region to resettle David Thomas, who eventually married there. She said, “…all this time, I’m not a thief, I’m not a fraudster, I’ve not duped anybody; café was going on in Kumasi…It was very legitimate, nothing hidden.”

That marked the beginning of a long-term friendship going sour, stated the embattled MP. She said she realised Patricia Gicks was playing close to the chiefs and elders of Axim, particularly through one Francis Kaku Nokoe.

Eventually, she decided to part ways with the Afekus culminating in the 2007 law suit.

Patricia Gicks gave Kaku Nokoe the Power of Attorney in the case.

But in a secret video recording of the Gicks’ son, who is currently siding with Catherine Afeku, she believed the elders of Axim manipulated Patricia Gicks to turn against her Ghanaian partner, apparently because they were working with her political opponent in Evalue-Gwira, Kojo Armah of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), to discredit her to the electorate.

In the tape available to DAILY GUIDE, David Thomas was heard saying; “…After some initial distrust, he [Mr. Kaku Nokoe] was able to persuade my mother… This is when it was decided that the story would be concocted that the so-called business was meant for Axim.”

He continued, “During this time, I was repeatedly fed with misinformation regarding the conduct and intent of the Afekus, who brought me to Ghana in the first place…”

Patricia Gicks told this paper that the embattled MP had so far paid $137,269.16, remaining about $100,000 and a 7.5 per cent annual interest on the claims.