Smoking Gun Over 300 Govt. Loan

In the heart of America’s financial heartbeat, sits a soft spoken and but deeply religious Ghanaian broker, who plays in the big league at Big Apples’ famous Wall Street.

With about 30 years of experience as a financial broker in the world financial market under his belt, his story is very compelling. Dr. Anthony K. Nyame, Chief Executive Officer of General Capital Corporation, is his name.

Back home in Ghana, the credibility of a 300 million Euro loan facility which has been laid before the august House of Parliament for debate to be used to finance some 391 uncompleted health projects at the Ministry hinges on his magic.

But even before Parliament sharpens its tongue to debate the 300 million Euro loan, there is a quiet but thunderous controversy lingering in the background over the credibility of the company, leading people to refer to it as akin to that scandalous salon loan secured and approved by Ghana’s parliament under the Kufuor regime.

The skeptics who are legitimately questioning the credibility of General Capital Corporation point to the size of the company whilst those who are upbeat are flagging a due diligence investigation conducted by Ghana’s mission in the US as evidence of the credibility of General Capital Corporation.

But Independent investigations by The Enquirer spanning two states of the US and extensive interviews with Dr. Anthony Nyame himself has provided the smoking gun.

GENERAL CAPITAL CORPORATTION –NEW YORK

According to documents obtained from the Division of Corporations of the New York Department of State, on December 4, 2001, Dr. Anthony Nyame registered General Capital Corporation in the State of New York and as domestic business Corporation.

The office of the company was located on 27-30 30th Avenue , Apt 2-G Astoria, New York, 11102.

On July 28, 2010, the Secretary of State dissolved General Capital Corporation, and rendered the company INACTIVE.

The company was dissolved under New York Tax Article 9-203 which allows the Secretary of State to dissolve tax delinquent companies. General Capital Corporation, New York was thus dissolved by proclamation, meaning the promoters refused to pay their taxes and was thus forcibly dissolved.

In New York, companies who intend to avoid the usually high taxes sometimes deliberately refuse to file their tax return allowing the Comptroller to dissolve it rather than dissolving it on their own.

GENERAL CAPITAL CORPORATION-DELAWARE

But further investigations by The Enquirer has revealed that Dr. Anthony Nyame since October 22, 2009, established General Capital Corporation in the US State of Delaware, which is a famous tax haven for many American businesses who escape from states they deem as having unfavorable tax regimes.

According to the official information obtained by The Enquirer from the Division of Delaware Secretary of State, Dr. Anthony Nyame registered General Capital Corporation in that state and has since that time been in good standing.

Tax checks conducted by The Enquirer and its investigating team also revealed that General Capital Corporation of Delaware, which is the one handling the 300 million Euro loan facility is up to date with its taxes.

The Total authorized shares of General Capital Corporation of Delaware which is apparently the one handling most of the company’s international business portfolio is 1,500 shares. The company has within the past one year had 5 fillings.

I HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE

Enquirer investigators tracked down Dr. Anthony Nyame, a staunch Catholic from his Wall Street Office in New York as he hurried to observe his afternoon mass. With a very sober tone, he agreed to open up for an in-depth interview on condition that he will be allowed to rush to mass.

Speaking in an interview with The Enquirer yesterday, Dr. Nyame said, even though under normal circumstance he would rather prefer Parliament to debate and scrutinize the deal, he has decided to speak “because I have nothing to hide I will speak to you, I just want to help my country and because you have taken the pain to call to find out the truth”.

Dr. Nyame said, for the past nine months, he has opened all his books to the government because the Minister of Finance commissioned the Commercial Attache with the Ghana Mission in the US to conduct a due diligence on his company.

He said the promoters of General Capital Corporation allowed the company in New York to be dissolved and primarily moved to register in Delaware mainly because of taxation purposes “ Delaware is a tax haven. He said most international transactions in the US is done in Delaware basically because of tax issues”

He added that most investors are comfortable in working in Delaware also for tax issues because the tax bracket in New York is too high.

On the issue of the 300 million facility. Dr. Nyame said that with all humility, it isn’t the case that he is better than any broker or investment banker in Ghana or even in America “ It is just that by the grace of God, I have some good investors who have confidence in me”

Dr. Nyame told The Enquirer that if one was to ask him to give him $5million, “I will tell you that I don’t have it, and I am being frank with you. But if you ask me to that you want a $5 million, $10 million or $100 million loan for a particular transaction which will benefit Ghana or a particular group of people, that one as an investment banker with connections in the market, I will find it for you.

Dr. Nyame noted that it is not the case that the money is coming from him, or his company but that haven’t operated in the market for many years, he has investors who are willing to loan the money to him.

The Ghanaian Wall Street guru said that funding Ghana is very unconventional, because the loan is coming from private investors who have their own money who have decided to loan it to Ghana.

“These are investors with their own money with private banks and trusts, if they decide that they want to do a project in Ghana, no one can tell them no because its their own money” he said.

Dr. Nyame said the agreement with Ghana is even more safe because it is a bank to bank transaction and that once Parliament debate the facility and approves it, Bank of Ghana will take it up and deal directly with the corresponding bank of those granting the loan and ensure that everything is done and that all necessary guarantees are presented.

“I don’t even come in” Dr. Nyame said adding that this is the first time he is doing a project for his homeland Ghana.”Some of us have been very quiet here, I don’t even know who is which minister in Ghana. The only name I have heard is one Dr. Kumbour, even him, I haven’t met him before. I am not a politician”

He said even though 300 million sounds a lot of money in Ghana, in terms of the their volumes even in neighboring Nigeria, it is small.

Asked what exactly his role is in the transaction, he said apart from locating the investors, they are also responsible for structuring the loan as investors bankers.

TRACK RECORD

When asked for their track record in doing business of this nature, he said in the financial market you don’t just get up and mention your confidential dealing with your clients to other third parties but directed The Enquirer to get hold of the due diligence conducted by the Ghana government.

Go to the Ministry of Finance and ask them to give you a copy of the due diligence report, you will know what they found.

“The due diligence will tell you those we have done business with, those who came forward to confirm the volume of transactions. You will know exactly what we have been doing” he added

Dr. Nyame noted that if there is a reason why they allowed General Capital Corporation in New York to be dissolved and then there is a reason why they used the one in Delware, adding that the question as to how long company in Delaware has been in existence is a mute point.

“It is not how long a company has been in existence, it is what they are able to do, whether in six months or not. You look those who manage it. It is also a question of contacts, it’s not a question of Oh you are 20 years, you therefore you have credibility” he added

He continued that General Motors, one of the oldest automobile companies in America collapsed and had to be bailed out by the US government.

He said if the Ghana deal doesn’t go through, he wouldn’t really mind “I will only care because I am a Ghanaian, but that will not affect what by the grace of God we do because there is more business here and in Europe, I have spent almost a year opening our books for due diligence”

He said when the chips are down, all those who think otherwise of this transaction will realize that it can be done and it has been done, so that when they see a Ghanaian doing something they will take him serious”

The soft spoken Dr. Nyame said if this was some phony expedition, he wouldn’t have wasted one year of his time pursuing it.

FOR THE SAKE OF GHANA

“We have never asked the Government of Ghana to pay us a penny, how we got the investors and everything, we used our money. Compared with many loans signed by Ghana, we never took anything, if you look at the way we structured it, the margins which come out for us is 1%.

He continued that “When they finish with the transactions, the total amount coming to my investors is 1%. The return on investment is 0.5%. “The service fee is normally 5% or 3% but I negotiated with the investors and said it’s my own country so we settled at 1%”.