THREE persons suspected to be the brains behind two big fraud episodes which occurred in the country late last year and early this year have been finally grabbed in Accra by the Criminal Investigations Department of the Police.
They are two foreign nationals, a Swiss Mr. Blochliger Otto Werner alias Dr. Werner or Charles, alleged to be the ring leader and Carrier Pier, an Italian. The third person is Osei Nyarko a Ghanaian.
Members of the syndicate succeeded in defrauding a number of people in Accra, Takoradi and Kumasi mostly, of tens of millions of cedis.
The three suspects were arrested at their hideout at Odorkor and Teshie following a tip off.
The Police have mounted an intensive search for the arrest of other members of the syndicate who are on the run, they are Fafa, an Italian, Stephen Adjei, an ex soldier, Alhaji Burkina, Festus Graham alias Alhaji Junior, Oliver Peprah, Alhaji Onise Otswe and Francis Adobo.
According to Chief Superintendent of Police, Mr. Kwaku Dzakpata, In charge of CID Operations, there has been series of complaints about the syndicate whose members operated from different hotels in the country.
He said the syndicate first started duping people with an item they called Marine Crew Pin.
What they did was to create a false scenario of an international shortage of the item which they said was an important part of a ship which could be used to repair old vessels. Through this members were able to dupe many people of millions of cedis and dollars.
The Marine Crew Pin turned out to be a worthless object which was beautifully packaged.
When the security agencies started closing in on them, they came up with another fraudulent scheme, this time, a magic powder, Charmdiet which they said was in high demand in Europe and could be used to attract big fishes like whales on the high seas.
They however maintained the same modus Operandi.
Chief Supt Dzakpata said to convince their victims, the syndicate usually introduced one of the three foreign nationals as a big time businessman who had just arrived from Europe in search of the powder to buy.
According to Chief Superintendent Dzakpata, the latest victim was the National Vice President of the Ghana National Spare Parts Dealers Association, Nana Osei Kwadwo whom they fleeced of a whooping ¢163 million under the pretext of supplying him with a Marine Crew Pin.
Narrating his ordeal to the Graphic in Accra yesterday, Nana Osei who is also the Managing Director of Gola Motors Limited in Accra said he was in his shop in Accra on February 15, 2000 when two men, Stephen Adjei and Festus Graham came to the shop and informed him that a company in Spain with branches in Holland, wanted an agent in Accra.
He said the two men claimed that their boss whose name they gave as George Edusa, a supplier of the pins died suddenly last year and the whiteman he was supplying the pins to, needed a replacement.
Nana Osei said the two men later introduced the whiteman as Dr Werner to him at a hotel in Accra who informed him that he wanted to purchase 72 pieces of the pins.
According to Nana Kwadwo, Dr. Werner said he was prepared to pay $2,000 for one pin and he (Nana Kwadwo) agreed to supply the quantity.
He said Stephen and Festus, therefore, took him to Tema where he met one Kwame Asamoah, supplier of the pins who claimed he was a Marine Engineer.
He said Asamoah agreed to supply 64 pieces at ¢4.5 million each to him for which he paid a total of ¢163 million and when he informed the whitman he asked him to meet him at the Labone Coffee Shop in Accra to collect his money but that was the last time he heard from Dr. Werner.
He said although he reported the incident to the police, he also started his own investigations and managed to trace the suspects to their hideout at Odorkor behind the Gloryland Hotel and made a report to the police who effected their arrests.
Nana Osei said the suspects have crippled his business.
They will be arraigned before court after investigations.
Meanwhile the police have appealed to members of the public, especially those who have been duped by the syndicate, to come to the Police Headquarters in Accra to identify them.
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