A Police Officer Staff Sergeant (S/Sgt) Isaac Akwasi Aning and seven others have been granted bail by the Accra High Court in the sum of GH¢4m over $523k gold scam transactions.
Samuel Adu Kumi, Benjamin Kakpo Addoquaye aka Ketuketu, Isaac Offei alias Atta, Benjamin Kologo and Isaac all Ghanaians are among the accused persons before the court.
The prosecution led by Assistant State Attorney Ms. Selasi Kuwornu, said on November 24, 2023, the National Security had intelligence that some persons involved in gold trading were planning to scam two foreigners.
On that same day, personnel of National Security followed the intelligence and apprehended two of the accused persons.
Upon interrogation, the two accused persons informed the National Security personnel of their plan to defraud Omer Topcu and Mustafa Ceyhan of Akbn Kuyumculuk Sanyi Ve Tiocaret Anonim Sirrketti, a Turkish company dealing in gold.
The Assistant State Attorney also told the Court that, the plan was to serve as revenge for the two foreigners causing one of the accused to lose huge sums of money in an earlier gold transaction he engaged in with them.
She said, they also promised the personnel part of the proceeds after the plan was executed.
The National Security personnel decided to play along with their plan and obtained details of the operations which were scheduled to take place on November 28, 2023.
On 28th November 2023, the National Security personnel intercepted and arrested four others, at the Airport Hajj Road in two Toyota Belta vehicles with registration numbers GR 7820-22 and GE 9954-22.
Prosecution further revealed that when the two vehicles were searched, the arresting officers found and seized a locked metal box containing ten (10) metal bars suspected to be gold.
In addition to the box, they also retrieved a gold test report from Benkotec Refinery dated 28th November 2023 and an acknowledgement letter of money transfer to Benkotec,”
However, the accused persons have pleaded not guilty to charges of Conspiracy, defrauding by false pretense and money laundering.
The two victims who are foreigners Omer Topcu and Mustafa Ceyhan, who bought the fake 10kg of gold from Samuel Adu Kumi and one Abubakar Sadik without a license, have also been charged for “buying gold without a license contrary to section 99(1) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703).”
They have all pleaded not guilty to their respective charges and have been admitted to bail in the sums of GH¢500,000 each.
Apart from the Ghanaian accused who were asked to produce two sureties with one justification each with a landed property, the two foreigners’ (victims) sureties have no justification.
The High Court presided over by Justice Marie-Louise Simmons has ordered the accused to report to the investigator of the unit that arrested them every Monday at the beginning of every month.
The court has also ordered all the accused to deposit their passports at the registry of the Court as part of their bail conditions.
The case has been adjourned to May 14, for Case Management Conference.