Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Menzgold Ghana Limited, Nana Appiah Mensah (NAM1), has described as “ignorant”, critics who trolled and mocked his company as dealing in fake gold by dint of sighting the words ‘Aurum Utalium’ in the contracts of his customers.
Chapter 2 of the contract signed between Menzgold and their investors specifies that the product being sold to investors was “Commodity Gold – Aurum Utalium (AU Metal)”.
Elaborating on the issue at a press conference, for the first time, after being released on bail, NAM1 observed that: “Aurum Utalium refers to gold doré bar. When we say gold doré bar, [we mean] gold that is not 100 per cent, that hasn’t got 100 per cent Aurum. Aurum is pure gold, that is 24 karat gold which is 99.9999 [per cent]. So, when you say Aurum Utalium, what we mean is that it is gold of a certain percentage purity or karat and then a foreign matter and that foreign matter could be silver, it could be copper, it could be any of the metals. Now, we signed a contract with people that we do business with and then we say we are selling; the commodity specification is Aurum Utalium [and] the percentage purity is 92 per cent and then the karat is 22 karat , and then somebody puts, respectfully, their ignorance on display … reads information from somewhere which is not gospel and then makes a huge fuss or propaganda out of it. It is unfair”.
In his opinion, language is dynamic and every field or sector has its own jargons, so, members of the public should seek understanding of issues concerning industries they are not familiar with before jumping to a conclusion.
He says the fact that it has been published somewhere that criminals often use Aurum Utalium “does not mean it is flawed or fake” or everyone who uses the phrase is a criminal as he has been labelled.
He has, therefore, asked the public to “disregard [the] misconceptions” as he concluded that: “It is something orchestrated by certain persons who do not have the facts”.
NAM1, who is being chased by some 16,000 clients whose GHS1.68 billion has been locked up with his company, further pleaded with the government of Ghana to assist him to recover fully an amount of $39 million owed Menzgold by Horizon Royal Diamond in Dubai.
He also requested the government to unfreeze his companies’ and his personal bank accounts and assets “for us to utilise these as vehicles to get productive in order to meet our liabilities owed to our customers and some business associates in our bid to resolve our liabilities immediately. As of now, Brew Marketing Consult, Menzgold and I cannot credit or debit any bank account in Ghana. This is why it is highly imperative to consider this kind request, as I believe the government shares in our resolve and would do all that is needful in our quest to satisfy the populace who are our customers.”
However, the lawyer for some of the aggrieved customers of the now-defunct company, Ms Amanda Clinton, has described as "ridiculous", NAM1’s three conditions precedent to the government of Ghana upon which he can pay his clients their locked-up funds.
Speaking to Valentina Ofori-Afriyie on 505 on Class91.3FM on Monday, 19 August 2019, Ms Clinton said Mr Mensah’s conditions are “ridiculous”.
“It’s ridiculous because first and foremost, he is facing four charges relating to banking offences and, so, they can’t unfreeze the account. Secondly, if he is so keen on money coming in for that purpose, do you know what any law firm can do including the lawyers he’s using? It’s called a client’s account whereby you earmark a specific account for a specific purpose and it is put in trust for something but he is just using semantics and it was a very good speech, we all enjoyed it, very marketing, but after one year, you’ve not paid a pesewa to customers and you’re doing all this talk,” she stated.
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