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The victims of the Menzgold scandal will receive justice, according to Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Godfred Yeboah Dame.
He claimed that the effectiveness of a nation’s judicial system was mainly judged by how quickly and effectively cases involving high-profile members of society and major financial crimes were handled.
In light of this, he declared: “We need to punish corruption and other forms of economic crime through a fair, honest, and efficient justice system.”
According to him, people gave the case’s suspects their entire life savings, causing losses amounting to millions of dollars and, in some cases, fatalities. He also claimed that the misery and distress brought upon so many homes almost sparked a social crisis as riots and demonstrations broke out on the streets of Accra and other parts of the nation.
“In reality, people lost their homes, and some marriages even broke up as a result of the Menzgold saga. I am happy to state that after painstaking investigations, criminal prosecution has commenced against the perpetrators. At last, by the grace of God, justice will be served to victims of those dastardly acts,” Yesterday at the University of Cambridge in the UK, Mr. Dame delivered the keynote lecture at the 40th Cambridge Symposium on Economic Crime.
It was his second time as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and his third visit at the event, which was themed “Integrity.”
Members of the House of Commons, attorney generals, and leaders of law enforcement agencies from several nations also participated.
Mr. Dame’s guarantee to the public follows the filing of 39 fresh charges against Nana Appiah Mensah, alias Nam1, the founder of Menzgold and the principal figure in the contentious financial investment scam.
Despite the firm being closed in 2018, the prosecutions surrounding the matter have continued, with a list of adjournments until the most recent charges.
The Attorney-General stated in the speech, which covered a wide range of topics, that the manifestation of economic crimes was becoming more complicated due to a variety of professional enablers’ actions that bordered on unethical behavior.
He listed these actions as breaking rules, breaking the law, money laundering, setting up front companies, using sketchy financial systems, and hiding illegitimate wealth.
“The intricacy and multidimensional nature of economic crime, undoubtedly, enjoin us to have a network of gatekeepers such as lawyers, bankers, real estate agents, insurance service providers and luxury service providers who are bound up by strong rules of ethics and accountability. A free, progressive and equitable society requires a world with men and women of integrity,” Mr Dame stated.
According to Mr. Dame, structures and procedures that are rooted in integrity are necessary for the development of a pure, open, and responsible financial ecosystem.
He claimed that the use of intricate plans to get around regulations, enable criminal activity, and engage in other types of illegal behavior in the global financial sphere placed issues of ethics and integrity into stark relief.
A strong legal system supported by the rule of law, according to him, goes hand in hand with economic development as it increases public confidence and discourages misbehavior.
Mr. Dame claimed that the illegal protection provided by public procurement officers, who are otherwise required to discover and review them, made it more difficult to uncover contractors’ fraudulent or contradictory representations.
He claimed that the most terrifying and maybe startling instance of insider trading occurred when a former head of the Public Procurement Authority was linked to the infamous “Contracts for Sale” scandal.
“As the head of the procurement authority, he was alleged to have established a company in which he held majority shares and which also actively bid for government contracts. This company was alleged to usually win the contracts, which were then sold to other contractors at a higher price,” Mr Dame added.
Mr. Dame claimed that after those actions were made public, the President swiftly fired him, withdrew his membership from a number of professional organizations, and began an ongoing legal investigation.
He claimed that additional instances involving insider trading have also been tried in other courts across the nation.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
