Menzgold Ghana Limited has filed a suit against the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) following a notice published by SEC, ordering Menzgold to shut down its business of trading in gold collectibles with guaranteed returns to clients.
It is the case of the Plaintiff that BoG (1st Defendant), issued notices in November 2017 and August 2018, warning the public against any dealings with it(Plaintiff).
The Plaintiff avers that SEC in November 2017, also informed the general public that Menzgold Ghana is not a SEC- regulated entity.
According to the Plaintiff, the notice was curiously issued at the time that BoG was also claiming that it’s(Menzgold) activities were deposit-taking.
The Plaintiff avers that it has, by several correspondence through its lawyers, made it emphatically clear to the Defendants that it does not accept from customers and neither trades in securities and that its activities, which are restricted among others, allows its customers to sell gold on its Vault Market.
According to the Plaintiff the above mentioned activity, is neither within the present legislated scope of the Banks and Specialised Deposit-taking Institutions nor within the present scope of the Securities Industry Act.
The Plaintiff avers that BoG was unable to shut down its business as it would have been entitled to, provided the Central Bank had sufficient reason to back its assertion that Menzgold is a deposit-taking business.
It is the case of Menzgold that the Bank of Ghana, in grave abuse of power and misapplication of its regulatory control and influence, has been leaning heavily on its bankers, especially Zenith Bank, persuading them not to conduct business with it (Menzgold), and to that end, Zenith Bank has since served notice of its intention to stop doing business with it.
According to the Plaintiff, SEC in its letter directing it to shut down, based its reasons on the grounds that it (Plaintiff) was running an issuance of gold-backed depository notes to its customers, without valid license.
The Plaintiff argues that although the notice from SEC was headed ” NOTICE TO SUSPEND”, the 2nd Defendant gave a directive for a shut down.
Menzgold, amongst other reliefs, is seeking an order of perpetual injunction to restrain Bank of Ghana and the Security Exchange Commission, from interfering with its business activities.
It is also seeking the setting aside of the directives by SEC in its (SEC) letter headed “NOTICE TO SUSPEND”.
Source: GhanaJustice/F.Kyeremateng
