By Prince Ahenkorah
Nana Appiah Mensah, the embattled founder of the defunct Menzgold investment scheme, has defended the legality of his operations, placing blame for missing documentation on state seizures.
Facing 39 criminal charges including fraud, money laundering, and operating without a licence Mensah, known as NAM1, testified that his company, A2 Company Limited, was fully authorised for gold trading, purchasing, and export.
His defence hinges on a technical narrative of shifting regulations. He claimed initial approval from the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) was later rendered obsolete when the PMMC’s mandate changed, after which he pursued and obtained authorisation from the Minerals Commission.
Crucially, however, he admitted to the Accra High Court that he could not presently produce these critical licences, citing the closure of his offices by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). “Many documents were no longer readily accessible,” he stated, promising to retrieve them.
The prosecution’s case alleges a different reality: that Mensah operated a sophisticated Ponzi scheme, using new investments to pay returns to earlier clients until the collapse in 2018, which froze an estimated GHS 1.7 billion of funds belonging to thousands.
Outside the court, Frederick Forson, convener of the aggrieved customers, underscored the human toll, revealing that nearly 300 investors have died since the collapse, citing stress and financial ruin. He pleaded for daily court sittings to expedite a trial that has become a symbol of delayed justice.
Presiding judge Justice Sedinam Awo Kwadam has ordered NAM1’s legal team to file a formal witness statement ahead of the next adjourned date, February 19, to streamline proceedings. The directive underscores judicial impatience with the pace of a case that has dragged for years.
Analysts see NAM1’s “lost licence” defence as a strategic pivot to introduce doubt regarding criminal intent, contrasting the prosecution’s portrayal of a deliberate fraud.
The outcome will test the resilience of Ghana’s financial regulatory framework and its capacity to deliver accountability in a case that has eroded public trust. For the ageing and dying creditors, the trial is a race against time.