How NAM 1 ended up in Dubai prison chasing $39 million gold cash

After being granted a self-recognizance bail by the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) in Ghana somewhere last year, embattled Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of gold trading hub, Menzgold, Nana Appiah Mensah popularly known as NAM 1 sneaked out of the country with the hope of getting money from other deals in order to pay for locked up investments of his clients.

According to MyNewsGh.com checks, he first relocated to Nigeria through the Togo Border and then to South Africa where his family had already been since the news of the alleged Menzgold scam broke out before moving to the United Arab Emirates towards the last quarter of last year leading to his arrest.

It is gathered that NAM 1 had traveled to Dubai in the hope of collecting US$39 million owed Menzgold by a Dubai-based company, Horizon Royal Diamonds DMCC, for the supply of gold.

His intention was to use the money to settle investors of the Menzgold, following the closure of the company by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the wake of a turf war with the Bank of Ghana.

Sources familiar with the story had indicated that in 2016, an unnamed official of the EOCO, had recommended Menzgold to officials of Horizon Royal Diamonds for the supply of huge quantities of gold. That recommendation came because, according to the sources, the Dubai Company, had earlier been duped by some Ghanaians.

Horizon Royal Diamonds and Menzgold duly established contact, however, before the deal could be struck, persons privy to the discussions presented themselves to Horizon Royal Diamonds with the promise of a better deal, to which officials of the Dubai-based company fell for.

It turned out that Horizon Royal Diamonds alleged later that it parted with not less than US$51 million for which no gold whatsoever was supplied by the said company.

Officials of Horizon Royal Diamonds, later reverted to Menzgold’s Nana Appiah Mensah in 2018, to supply them the gold, upon which request he is said to have demanded an undertaking not to be linked to the transaction with Just Gold Company Limited, the company Horizon Royal alleged it paid the US$51 million.

That undertaking duly arrived, spelling out Menzgold’s disconnection with the deal said to have gone bad and its lack of liability.

Following that undertaking, Menzgold proceeded to supply 750kg of gold to Horizon Royal Diamonds, at an agreed price of $28 million at the time of supply.

“Per the arrangement between the two companies, it is now worth $39 million and Nana had gone there to facilitate the retrieval of the money when the SWIFT transfer account details the guys in Dubai provided turned out to be fake. He wanted his money to come and sort out the current situation with his company, but the guys rather reported him to the Dubai authorities accusing him of fraud” a source close to Nana Appiah Mensah as saying.

Currently, there are lingering doubts if NAM 1 could be extradited to Ghana anytime soon to face charges of defrauding by false pretenses after an official complaint was lodged with the police by the aggrieved Menzgold customers.