Former mine workers invested huge severance pay in Menzgold – Aubynn

Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Minerals Commission Dr Toni Aubynn has revealed that most ex-employees of mining companies at Tarkwa in the Western Region invested their huge severance packages in the now-struggling gold-trading firm Menzgold Ghana Limited.

He told Accra-based Class FM that the ex-miners are now suffering because of the company’s inability to pay them their principals and accrued interest.

“I’m interested in the people of Tarkwa in particular, where most of the employees, either out of ignorance or out of greed, put a lot of money there [Menzgold]. Some of them took severance payment or redundancy payment from the [mining companies]. Redundancy in the mining areas are quite handsome and a lot of them deposited their receipt in this vehicle and now what we see is what we are seeing.”

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“So, I really hope something could be done to ensure that the citizens, people who have put their monies there, will not feel another Pyram,” he added.

Dr Aubynn said that something must be done to cause Menzgold to pay their customers their money “after all, they traded with that, and, therefore, they may have made some money out of that and, therefore, they should be able to pay them.”

Menzgold Ghana has suspended operations for a while due to an ongoing battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) over the legalities of its operations.

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The regulatory authorities are of the view that Menzgold had not been licensed to take deposits and is, therefore, operating an illegal venture. However, Menzgold insists it does not take deposits or fall under the two institutions.

Some clients who have not been able to access their dividends are seeking to terminate their contracts with the company while others have hinted at dragging Menzgold to court.

The company, however, says it will pay 15 per cent of its clients’ principal investments to those wishing to terminate their contract. It has also urged others seeking to continue doing business with them to migrate onto its new online product for “prompt extra value and principal payments.”