I feel pained seeing people who took my money living a good life - Gold Coast victim

One of the suffering masses of the defunct Gold Coast Fund Management Limited owned by politician and business magnate Papa Kwesi Nduom, has narrated how peeved she has been over the past five years for not being able to access her lifetime investments.

Customers of the defunct fund manager have had their funds locked up since the company went bust.

According to the victim, she is filled with pain anytime she sees the people who took her money living a good life while she wallows in poverty.

Mrs Rosemond Greensky narrated how sordid the life of her husband has become after 35 years of working with Ashanti Goldfields in the Ashanti Region.

''Because all lifetime investments have been locked up with SEC," she said.

"I cannot stand it seeing them living a good life for us who gave them our money as investments suffering," she stressed.

She explained that the husband has lost everything because he invested his lumpsum with the fund management company.

She narrated her predicament on The Citizens Show on Accra100.5FM hosted by Kwabena Bobie Ansah on Tuesday, May 2, 2023, after scores of customers of the defunct fund management company picketed the premises of the regulator, Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), to demand payment of their locked up funds, Tuesday, May 2, 2023.

"We cannot afford two-square meals a day and let alone pay the fees of our children," she lamented.

She noted that she had the cause to question God why he should allow such a calamity to befall her as a Christian.

"I used to help people and now when they come and I say I cannot afford to help, they don’t understand because I don’t have it," she said, adding: "I have been turned into squalor because I invested my money in an investment scheme."

Meanwhile, The Securities and Exchange Commission recently said the GHS5.5 billion released by the government to pay locked-up investments of victims of the financial sector clean-up exercise was not just for affected clients of Gold Coast which later became Blackshield, but for all investors of the 47 companies that had claims by investors.

In a statement, SEC said all investors with validated claims have, therefore, been contacted by Amalgamated Fund and GCB Capital Ltd., the entities managing the implementation of the bailout.

The government has yet to release the full GHS 5.5 billion to the implementing agencies of the bailout, SEC statement dated Thursday, 30 March 2023, said.

“The update received by the SEC from the implementing agencies of the bailout is that so far, GHS 4.6 billion has been allocated as follows: GHS3.1 billion to Amalgamated Fund Tier 1 payments and GHS1.45 billion assigned to Amalgamated Fund Tier 2 payments”, SEC noted.

This disbursement, the Commission explained, “includes the partial bailout programme which entailed the payment of a sum of up to Fifty Thousand Ghana cedis (GHS 50,000) to clients of Blackshield/Gold Coast and other companies who had not received winding-up orders from the court by October 2020 but whose claims had been validated”.

The total amount paid to Blackshield clients in the partial bailout is GHS1.34 billion covering a total of 73,541 investors, it added.

Out of this amount, a total amount of GHS757,539,141 has been used to fully settle 61,734 customers of Blackshield.

Acting in accordance with Section 122 (2) (b) of the Securities Industry Act 2016, (Act 929) (SIA), SEC revoked the licences of 53 Fund Management Companies (FMCs) on 8 November 2019, due to various regulatory breaches including their inability to return clients’ funds estimated at GHS8 billion, and significant breaches of applicable rules that created risks to financial stability.

The licences were revoked in accordance with the mandate of SEC to protect investors and the integrity of the capital market.

Following the revocation of the licences, SEC took the following actions to protect investors:

1. Notified the Registrar of Companies/Registrar General to petition the Court for orders to commence the official liquidation of the fifty-three (53) FMCs under the relevant law.

2. Appointed an agent in line with the relevant provisions of the SIA, to take copies of records and lock up premises to secure the assets of the affected companies.

3. Engaged the Government through the Ministry of Finance on a bailout package for affected clients of the FMCs. The Government agreed to the latter on two conditions: firstly, that liquidation orders must be granted by the courts; secondly, validation of claims of claimants should also be completed. Without these conditions, the full bailout cannot be rolled out. SEC is currently working with these conditions.

4. SEC mandated the agent to receive claims from the clients of the affected companies, acknowledge receipt of same and conduct validation of claims received from affected clients.

Concerns of Clients of Blackshield/Gold Coast

While addressing the concerns of clients of Blackshield/Gold Coast, including a request to SEC to urgently share documents with the defunct company for the progression of the Official Winding-Up order, the Commission said the decision to disburse bailout funds after validation of claims and an official winding-up order by the court was to ensure that all claims are verified, and the assets and liabilities of the companies are transferred to the Registrar of Companies.

SEC said in compliance with the Corporate Insolvency and Restructuring Act, 2020 (Act 1015), as amended by the Corporate Insolvency and Restructuring (Amendment) Act 2020 (Act 1031), an official winding-up order can only be granted by a court, hence the ongoing court process between the Office of the Registrar of Companies and Blackshield/ Gold Coast.

SEC said it has complied fully with Blackshield/Gold Coast request for documents and is not delaying the court process.

The Office of the Registrar of Companies has been granted 44 official winding-up orders by the court and only 2 are outstanding, namely Blackshield Fund Management Company (formerly Gold Coast) and Kron Capital Ltd, SEC reported.

The Commission said it has, therefore, “cooperated with the court process to date and will continue to do so.”

“SEC wishes to inform clients of Blackshield that the firm’s lawyers were granted access to all documents when Blackshield appealed the revocation decision in November 2019. The server with critical information for Blackshield/Gold Coast was in the custody of Blackshield/Gold Coast from the date of revocation 8th November 2019 until SEC sought the help of the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) to retrieve the server in August 2020. It is erroneous to accuse the SEC of delaying a process that it has cooperated with in good faith”.

The Commission also appealed to “all affected clients to remain calm and rely only on information” provided by the Official Liquidator and SEC.