A court orders the sale of a school and other properties to pay cryptographic victims

General News of Sunday, May 19th, 2019

Source: starrfm.com.gh

2019-05-19

A commercial court in Koforidua has ordered the sale of commercial buildings, including a school – Perfect Love Montessori School – owned by Kwaku Damete Kumi, chairman and CEO in trouble of Global Coin Community Help, a crypto currency firm in Nsawam in the East region.

The Court rendered its decision in a judgment in favor of defrauded customers who filed a suit asking the court to recover their capitalized investments from the company.

The evaluated properties that will be auctioned on May 27, 2019 are 3-storey office buildings with a market value of GH ¢ 3,307,200.00, including a forced sale value of GH ¢ 2,315,000.

Again, a block of 3 floors with a market value of 651,400 GH ¢. is sold at 455 900 GH ¢.

A space of two offices is also auctioned at 32,700 GH ¢ instead of 46,700 GH $.

Meanwhile, the Perfect Love Montessori School located in Nsawam-Gyankrom is auctioned at GH ¢ 488,500.00, while the market value of the market is GH ¢ 697,800.

Already, the leaders of a total of 831 scam victims on investments in the encrypted currency have called on President Akufo-Addo and Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, to call the Bureau of Economic Crime and organized (EOCO) for it condemns their efforts to recover GH ¢ 3.7 million from the account of the disappeared financial company – Global Coin Community Help (GCCH) filed at the Ghana Commercial Bank in a judgment rendered in his favor by a high court of Koforidua.

The amount is entered into the GCCH seized account at the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB).

This amount represents only a tiny fraction of more than 15 million ¢ GH. The plaintiffs requested the Koforidua court to recover from the company the payment of their lost deposits at GCCH.

Victims include security personnel, nurses, businesswomen, traders, and others.

Chronology of events and legal drama of EOCO

In September 2018, Global Coin Community Help (GCCH) abruptly shut down its offices in Accra, Koforidua, and Nsawam without notice to more than one hundred thousand customers.

Panic action was taken after the Bank of Ghana issued a strong warning to unregistered depository institutions to cease operations. Customers of the cryptocurrency business, aware of the danger of losing their investments, rushed in groups to ask EOCO to help them recover their capitalized investments.

EOCO advised the victims to take legal action against the company. Separate civil proceedings were instituted in the Koforidua High Court against GCCH and its general manager Kweku Damete Kumi on 20 and 23 November 2018.

In December 2018 and January 2019, the plaintiffs obtained two separate judgments in absentia because the defendant did not appear in court.

Prior to the judgment, the court granted the victims an interlocutory injunction order on behalf of the company at GCB Bank on December 10, 2018.

Ten days after the expiry of the blocking order, the court issued an additional blocking order that preserved the account until the determination of the case.

On January 19, 2019, EOCO also obtained a blocking order on the same account from the High Court of Accra.

On January 21, 2019, the Koforidua High Court ordered GCB Bank to pay its clients an amount of 2.9 million Gh ¢ which the bank had agreed to respect.

However, on February 4, 2019, the GCB bank returned to the court by inviting him to comply with the payment order and asked the court to give him additional instructions as she had also received a new Injunction of Accra. High Court by EOCO to keep the same account frozen.

After the court heard both counsel for the plaintiff and the GCB bank, the final decision of the Koforidua High Court Judge was an order directing the GCB Bank to release the funds within seven days.

In addition, the judge concluded that because of the indolent conduct of EOCO, they should not benefit from this account.

"The complainants, I find, have been proactive and brought their complaint to court as advised by EOCO. EOCO, by contrast, has been very indolent and should not benefit from their indolence at the expense of the diligent applicants in this case, "said the extract from the ruling.

Despite this decision, GCB Bank refused to release the money.

After one month of payment by the plaintiffs to GCB Bank which proved to be in vain, a claim of contempt was filed against GCB Bank on March 11, 2019.

Just before the start of the hearing of the claim of contempt against GCB Bank, EOCO rushed to court to request a joinder in order to be part of the court case. contempt hearing.

EOCO was fired for refusing to appear to file the motion.

But EOCO returned to court to have its petition put on sale a week later and filed another petition for joinder. For the second time, EOCO was again removed from court for being absent in court to file the claim, which cost EOCO 1,000 GH ¢.

On April 23, 2019, EOCO returned to court to seek reinstatement of his joinder application for the third time, while the judge had asked the plaintiffs' lawyer to file his contempt hearing petition. court.

Koforidua Court of Appeal "B" has already issued a warrant on April 10, 2019 for the arrest of the directors of the company – Kwaku Damete Kumi and two other persons, but EOCO on April 29, 2019 would have blocked the East police personnel The regional police headquarters arrested them.

On May 8, 2019, EOCO did not appear in court to present its own motion filed as Junction in contempt of GCB Bank.

The judge ordered that the notice of hearing be served on EOCO on May 20, 2019. The court again sentenced EOCO to an amount of 500 ¢ GH.

In the meantime, the Court has set a final decision on July 5 for the case of contempt of GCB Bank.

On May 13, 2019, the Commercial Division of the Koforidua High Court quashed a GCB motion requesting the Court to stay the plaintiffs pending an appeal against an advance ruling from the court. ordering the release of GH ¢ 3,7. million from GCCH's account to GCB Bank in seven days.

The court sentenced the bank GCB to pay 4000 GH ¢. On the same day, the Koforidua High Court 4 adjourned a similar hearing on May 29, 2019 at the request of the lawyer of the GCB bank in order to respond to the pleadings of the plaintiffs' attorney.