Aggrieved customers of Gold Coast Fund Management threaten demo

The coalition of Aggrieved Customers of Gold Coast Fund Management has given government five days to intervene by retrieving their locked up investments or they hit the protest in protest.

Members also want the company, a subsidiary of Group Nduom to negotiate to immediately pay, at least, half of their investments.

According to them, they are unable to take care of their children and their businesses are on the verge of collapse.

“Among us are also Pensioners who have their retirement benefits locked up with Dr.Nduom and his GCFM Company and therefore are unable to take care of their basic needs such as medical bills and other basic essentials,” the Coalition said in a statement published in full below.

Addressing a press conference in Kumasi, Public Relations Officer of the Coalition, Charles Nyame, says earlier explanation by group President, Dr. Paa Kwasi Nduom suggesting he had invested GHS1.9 billion in government infrastructural projects cannot be trusted.

“We are, therefore, giving a 5-day deadline to the Government of Ghana to swiftly address our grievances, failure to which we will hit the streets of Kumasi in a massive demonstration to lodge our protest against this grave injustice that we face from Dr.Papa Kwesi Nduom and his GCFM Company. We are citizens of this great nation and we deserve justice, for which we are ready to fight for until the last drop of our blood.”

The group is threatening to report the situation to the regulator of banks in the United States because of Nduom Group’s acquisition of the ISF Bank.

“Dr. Nduom should as well take note that we are in the process of contacting the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which is the regulator of banks in the U.S to report his conduct of misappropriating innocent Ghanaians investments to acquire the ISF Bank in the U.S and also request that the OCC should apply their extraterritorial laws in enforcing the needed sanction on Dr. Nduom to help we the customers to retrieve our investments from him.”

Nyame GCFM coalition

BELOW IS A COPY OF THE PRESS RELEASE

A PRESS RELEASE BY THE COALITION OF AGGRIEVED CUSTOMERS OF GOLD COAST FUND MANAGEMENT (GCFM) –ASHANTI REGION OF GHANA

Among us are also pensioners who have their retirement benefits locked up with Dr.Nduom and his GCFM Company and therefore are unable to take care of their basic needs such as medical bills and other basic essentials. Some of our members have even lost the lives of their dear ones because they were unable to take care of certain basic medical needs in very critical times. The following are the key issues we are raising:

Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom and his GCFM Company have deliberately decided to refuse to pay us back our fixed deposit investments which we have with them, even though the said investments have matured since June last year and beyond.  This practice violates the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) regulation that gives no right to any fund manager to vary the terms and conditions of the contract they have entered with their customers.

Yet, Dr. Nduom and his GCFM Company have willfully decided to disregard the terms and conditions of the contracts with impunity, and surprisingly, they have gone away without any sanctions by the regulators (SEC & BoG), though, the regulators have been aware of this violation.

Evidence available to us during a discussion with the management of GCFM indicated that they have truncated all our fixed deposit investments which had an interest rate of 25%, as at 1st November 2018 and instead replaced the interest on these investments with a 182-day GoG Treasury bill interest rate plus additional 2% interest. This they claimed is due to an SEC directive they purported was issued to them. Contrary to this assertion, we intercepted the said document containing the SEC directive, in which we discovered that SEC had rather directed all fund Managers to stop giving guaranteed returns on fixed deposit investments effective 30th June 2018 and also to make all necessary arrangements to unwind and pay off all such fixed term investments upon maturity starting from 1st July- 31st December 2018. It is, therefore, mind-boggling why Dr. Nduom and his GCFM Company instead decided to truncate our investments that were already running.

In this same said directive from SEC also, all fund managers were instructed to stop giving guaranteed returns on new fixed deposit investments effective 1st July 2018 but rather, Dr. Nduom and his GCFM Company chose to disregard this instruction and were still taking new deposits with guaranteed returns up until November 2018 as evident in the transaction of some of our members. It is therefore surprising why Dr. Nduom and his GCFM Company should decide to implement the directive from SEC in sharp contrast to what they have originally been instructed to do. We, therefore, consider this as a breach of regulatory compliance and a gross disregard to a directive by the regulator and therefore they must be sanctioned.

We are also aware that Dr. Nduom has loaned out our investment to his GN bank in Ghana and those in the other African countries, as well as his GN bank in Chicago USA. This act we believe amounts to a conflict of interest situation by Dr. Nduom, which unfortunately the regulators have decided to turn a blind eye to such a major violation.  On the contrary, Dr. Nduom and his GCFM Company claimed in a letter we intercepted, that they have invested our money into Government of Ghana infrastructure projects, which we doubt. However, we are by this press release urging the Government of Ghana that, if Dr. Nduom’s assertion is true, then the Government should tell us the percentage of our total investment that Dr. Nduom and his company have invested with them. In which case we are entreating the government as a matter of urgency to put in immediate action to repay Dr. Nduom and his company so they can as well pay us.

Dr. Nduom should as well take note that we are in the process of contacting the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which is the regulator of banks in the U.S to report his conduct of misappropriating innocent Ghanaians investments to acquire the ISF Bank in the U.S and also request that the OCC should apply their extraterritorial laws in enforcing the needed sanction on Dr. Nduom to help we the customers to retrieve our investments from him.

We the customers of GCFM believe that the SEC and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) are in connivance with Dr. Nduom to perpetuate such injustice on innocent customers.  This is evident in their deafening silence in failing as regulators to call Dr. Nduom to order even though they are very much aware of the current situation we are in as customers. We, therefore, want to use this medium to inform the regulators that our current predicament engineered by Dr. Nduom is not comparable with the Menzgold saga in which they as regulators opted to absorb themselves of any blame.

As regulators, they should know that they are complicit in what is happening currently at GCFM. We, therefore, call on the Government of his Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo–Addo to as a matter of urgency intervene in this injustice that we are facing and call for accountability from all the parties that are complicit in this matter.

We are therefore giving a 5-day deadline to the Government of Ghana to swiftly address our grievances, failure to which we will hit the streets of Kumasi in a massive demonstration to lodge our protest against this grave injustice that we face from Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom and his GCFM Company. We are citizens of this great nation and we deserve justice, for which we are ready to fight for until the last drop of our blood.

We are saddened that, Dr. Nduom who aspires to occupy the highest office of this land could met out such great injustice to the same citizens that he hopes to lead one day. We need our money now and we will not allow Dr. Nduom who has not shown a positive moral and ethical standard in this matter to continue to manipulate us any longer. True leaders we know must act ethically even under challenging situation, but we have realized that Dr. Nduom is no different from Nana Appiah Mensah the CEO of Menzgold, except that, Dr.  Nduom hides behind partisan politics to perpetuate crime against innocent citizens of this great nation. We need justice; our money should be paid to us as soon as possible. Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom should bring back the money of the poor Ghanaian taxpayer.

SIGNED:

Mr. Francis Owusu Afriyie (Chairman) –                               ………………………………………………………..

Mrs. Elizabeth Boadu (Vice Chairperson) –                         ………………………………………………………..

Mr. Joseph Aryeetey (Secretary/PR) -0244478569            ………………………………………………………..

Mr. Charles Nyame (PR) –                      0247222613          ………………………………………………………….

Mrs. Augustina Serwaa Ankrah (Organizer) –                    …………………………………………………………

Mrs. Mispah Kumah (Treasurer) –                                   …………………………………………………………..

Cc: All Media Houses

The Office of the President

Securities & Exchange Commission of Ghana

Bank of Ghana

The American Embassy in Ghana

GCFM

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