Former Barclays MD`s wife to face court today

The Managing Director of Nova Complex Limited, Mrs. Diana Quansah, wife of the former Barclays Bank boss is expected to face further cross-examination in an Accra Fast Track High Court (FTC) today, December 14, 2009, in a case in which her company has sued its business partner for fraud. The case arose from alleged monies paid by the said partner, Fishy Limited, to Nova Complex Limited for the refurbishment of the latter's vessel, MV Nova VIII, which was beached by the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA). The beaching of the vessel followed a protracted litigation between Nova Complex Limited and GPHA, in which the former admitted receiving monies worth US$500,000 from Fishy Limited, and relied on the receipt in its evidence before the High Court, traveling up to the Supreme Court. After the GPHA had paid millions of dollars to Nova Complex as judgment debt, the latter then sued its partner, Fishy Limited, for allegedly not receiving money from the fishing company. However, when Fishy Limited previously sued Nova Complex Limited for the recovery of the amount, it submitted to judgment, through its lawyer, and the court on November 24, 2004 gave judgment in favour of the plaintiff. Subsequently, Nova Complex sued its partner for fraud, when it attempted to claim its money. Mrs. Quansah had earlier on given evidence before the Fast Track Court (FTC), presided over by Justice Novisi Aryene, indicating that she never took any such monies from Mr. Bill Adams, Director of Fishy Limited, adding that if any such monies were paid, she would have known it. The evidence of the witness was in sharp contrast to that of one of her directors in the earlier suit against the GPHA at the High Court, which went up to the Supreme Court on appeal, that US$500,000 was received from the Director of Fishy Limited. Nova Complex Limited issued a writ against Fishy Limited and its Director, Mr. Bill Adams, claiming against the defendants, jointly and severally, an order to set aside the High Court judgment of November 24, 2004, on the grounds of fraud, in addition to cost. In its statement of claim, the plaintiff noted that it entered into a contract with Fishy Limited around the year 2000, for the company to use plaintiff's fishing vessel, Nova VIII, for fishing, subject to payment of an agreed fee. According to the plaintiff, under the contract, Fishy Limited was expected to provide US$500,000 as a deposit, before the vessel was assigned to it, but Mr. Adams informed the court that the said amount had been paid to one of the directors of Nova Complex Limited, which turned out not to be true. It was the view of the plaintiff that having believed its Director had received the deposit and forward the documents of the vessel to the defendants, it decided to submit to judgment when the latter issued a writ against it. According to plaintiff, it recently realised that the Director of Fishy Limited had perpetrated fraud on it, adding that the judgment of November 29, 2004 was fraudulently obtained by Fishy Limited against it. In a swift rebuttal to the assertions of the plaintiff, the Director of the Defendant Company noted that he paid an amount of US$500,000 to the plaintiff through its Managing Director, Mrs. Diana Quansah, at her residence in about the year 2001. According to the defendant, the US$500,000 formed part of an amount of US$2,071,223 utilised by the plaintiff in rehabilitating and equipping the vessel, whose hiring led to the said contract. Additionally, the defendants asserted that the plaintiff acknowledged receipt of the said US$500,000 from it, and used it to obtain judgment against the GPHA, a case that traveled from the High Court to the Supreme Court. It was therefore the contention of the defendants that the plaintiff should be stopped from denying receipt of the said amount of money, stressing that the present action was instituted in bad faith, and calculated to deprive the defendant of the share of the payment made by the GPHA.