Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has agreed with a section of the public who feel Menzgold brouhaha came about as a result of unbridled "greed".
According to him, “…our own greed led to this…if you look at international gold prices; rising between 1-2 percent a year and someone promises to give you 10 percent; a month; without any license” one should immediately know that it is not legitimate.
Interacting with Kwami Sefa-Kayi, on Peace FM's morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, Friday, after presenting the third budget statement of the Akufo-Addo led government in Parliament Thursday; Mr Ofori Atta wondered why some prayerful Christians could not sense (vision) that Menzold is not legitimate.
“… it is difficult and it is not that those who went there were not learned…big people and sometimes you wonder why we fall into such a situation with so many being Christians and always praying…we should not be encouraging those things; investing at the wrong places...it is a non-registered institution doing a work which a registered company should be doing,” he stated.
Background
Menzgold was asked to suspend its gold trading operations with the public by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to the SEC, Menzgold has been dealing in the purchase and deposit of gold collectibles from the public and issuing contracts with guaranteed returns with clients, without a valid license from the Commission.
This, the SEC said this was in contravention of “section 109 of Act 929 with consequences under section 2016 (I) of the same Act.”
The company was however cleared to continue its “other businesses of assaying, purchasing gold from small-scale miners and export of gold.”
Menzgold was initially unable to pay its customers matured investments on their gold deposits due to the action taken against it by the SEC.
“The gold collectibles offered for trade by patrons of our gold vault market product are subject to our quality controls and traded for profit which is shared as extra value with the product owner or trader. Any act, order or instruction, therefore, designed or decreed to forbid Menzgold from trading makes it impossible to generate any revenue whatsoever out of which extra values are charged and paid to those entitled,” Menzgold said in a statement.
But the SEC did not agree with Menzgold’s position, saying the action did not stop them from paying customers dividends on already existing investments.
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