Groupe Nduom (GN) companies are pursuing multiple legal actions to collect funds from organizations who have defaulted in paying back funds provided to them to engage in various productive activities in the country, Today can report
Our investigations showed that five (5) law firms had in the past three years been working to document, verify and process transactions between GN companies such as BlackShield/Gold Coast Fund Management and Gold Coast Advisors among others. Some of these lawsuits are nearing the stage where judgment could be given by judges sitting in various courts across the country.
A representative of GN who in an interview with Today spoke on the condition of anonymity recalled that in 2019, the company published in the paper and other publications the names of debtors and gave notice for the individuals and companies to make contact to discuss repayment of the funds they took to engage in their various enterprises and projects.
Our further checks revealed that a small number went voluntarily to negotiate payment schedules.
“Sensing that others wanted to take undue advantage of the challenging situation the GN companies had been put under, the directors engaged the services of law firms to use the legal system to force collections of amounts due”, the GN representative said.
The organizations, the GN representative said, included various government agencies and private companies in health care, insurance, construction, warehousing and distribution, financial houses including savings and loans, microfinance, fund managers and others.
According to the GN spokesman, most of the organizations h failed to file defenses in court and had used various delay tactics to prolong the cases.
In one instance, the GN spokesperson said, a contractor on a government project used the public airwaves to deny owing anything but turned around in private to beg for forgiveness. “That case is still in court. The Office of the Attorney General has been representing some of the state agencies named in the lawsuits”, the GN representative said.
“The important fact in all of these cases, is that these are funds that belong to customers who invested their hard-earned monies with GN companies, particularly BlackShield/Gold Coast Fund Management”, the GN spokesperson added.
Today further gathered that about sixty percent (60%) of the funds were due from government agencies that gave legitimate infrastructure project contracts to Ghanaian contractors prior to 2017 and gave an undertaking to pay the financiers.
Readers will recall that in the midst of the liquidity crisis faced by BlackShield, the management pleaded in writing with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) to intervene with the Ministry of Finance and help collect monies due only to be told by a deputy director-general in a radio interview that “…SEC is not a debt collector”.
GN, according to its representative, has resolved to put all the funds collected from the debtors after paying legal and related expenses into an account in trust for its customers.
“Some judgments are expected in the month of June. The company also believes that there has been a deliberate agenda that has been implemented over the past four years to deny its related companies of the liquidity they need to meet their obligations”, the GN top manager said.
When pressed, the GN spokesman estimated the amounts to be collected including accrued interest to be close to five (5) billion Ghana Cedis.
The spokesperson promised that a list “will soon be published of those who owe monies and are hiding behind the revocation of licenses and challenges faced by some GN companies and using these as reasons not to pay up”.
The spokesman was clear with the fact that GN directors and shareholders have had enough of the name of the companies being dragged in the mud by state and private players.
They were particularly incensed by the deliberate and calculated statement about GN engaging in money laundering promising the beginning of legal actions against those who continue to spread such falsehoods.
