The Attorney General has slapped defunct Menzgold Chief Executive Officer Nana Appiah Mensah with 39 fresh charges.
The latest charges include but are not limited to selling gold, operating a deposit-taking business without a license, inducement to invest, defrauding by false pretence, fraudulent breach of trust, and money laundering.
This development comes almost four years after Mr Mensah, popularly known as NAM 1, was arrested and subsequently put before court.
He was arraigned on 61 charges at the Accra Circuit Court but now faces 39 charges at the Accra High Court.
The high court is expected to hear the case on September 19, 2023.
Per the previous facts, in October 2018, around 16,000 individuals registered complaints with the police, claiming that Menzgold had persuaded them to invest a staggering GH¢1.68 billion in a gold purchase scheme.
Promised returns of 10% monthly interest were alluring, prompting many to invest.
However, the prosecution contends that investors were locked in a distressing situation. Their invested funds were inaccessible, and they could not locate Nana Appiah Mensah (NAM1) and other key executives of Menzgold.
Investigations revealed that Menzgold and Brew Marketing Consult had been established as limited liability companies in 2013 and 2016, respectively.
Menzgold, the prosecution asserts, received a license from the Minerals Commission in August 2016. This license permitted the company to purchase and export gold from small-scale miners. NAM1 established Brew Marketing Consult as a gold buying agent to facilitate these operations.
However, revelations indicate that the Minerals Commission did not duly license Menzgold for gold trading. Despite this regulatory gap, the company publicly solicited deposits from the public, offering fixed-term investments with interest under the guise of gold purchasing.