An Accra High Court is expected to decide whether Nana Appiah Mensah will walk free or be compelled to open his defence, today, July 10.
Mr Mensah, popularly known as NAM 1 and his companies -Menzgold Ghana Limited and Brew Marketing Consult Ghana Limited – have been charged with 39 counts.
The charges include selling gold without a license, operating a deposit-taking business, inducement to invest, defrauding by false pretence, fraudulent breach of trust and money laundering.
On Tuesday, June 11, 2024, when the prosecution and defence lawyers appeared in court together with the accused person and some of his victims, the lawyers in a lengthy argument, took turns to highlight their written submissions on whether the accused is innocent or he has questions to answer.
Tuesday’s argument was occasioned by an application of no case filed by lawyers for Nana Appiah Mensah, who after listening to testimonies by the nine witnesses called by the prosecution, said they believed their client was innocent.
Lead Counsel for the accused, Kwame Akuffo in his submission to the court said despite the loud complaints outside the court by persons who have allegedly been defrauded by his client, “only eight people have come to court “arguing that if indeed the number of victims is as huge as has been portrayed, they should have come to court.
Focusing more on the charges brought against NAM 1, Kwame Akuffo contended that the prosecution cannot in the same breath charge his client for money laundering and defrauding by false pretence and that stealing and money laundering are mutually exclusive.
He said they have presented documents to the court that show that NAM 1 paid taxes to the state during the period of his operation and that the prosecution has so far failed to show that the accused person didn’t have a license to sell gold.
In a counterargument, the prosecution contended that Brew Marketing Consult, one of NAM 1’s businesses he allegedly used to defraud his victims, is unknown to the Minerals Commission of Ghana to either purchase or export gold.
Menzgold on the other hand, according to the prosecution, can only purchase and export minerals, and not operate as a deposit-taking business without a license from the Bank of Ghana.
They argued that on the count of inducement to invest, NAM 1 engaged in advertisements by contracting celebrities, advertisements, which according to the prosecution, got huge responses from the public.
In all of this, according to the prosecution, NAM 1 knew that whatever he was churning out in the advertisement was false.
The prosecution in response to an argument about the negligible number of witnesses presented by the state, said “Even one witness is enough to convict Nana Appiah Mensah”.
The prosecution rounded up their submission by contending that the defence lawyers “nailed their client when they tendered into evidence several customers who were defrauded by Nana Appiah Mensah and Menzgold.”
NAM1, who is currently on a GH¢500 million bail with four sureties, has so far pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
The charges comprise selling gold without a license, operating a deposit-taking business, inducement to invest, defrauding by false pretence, fraudulent breach of trust and money laundering.
Today, the court will determine whether the prosecution has sufficiently proven the offences he has been charged with after calling nine witnesses to the stand.
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