undercover in search of THE ILLUSIONARY POT OF GOLD.

Hopes are dashed; long held dreams shattered. It is usually a tale of toil and treachery in Ghana - the land of gold and lush forested hills. Some investors are greeted with the grim reality of seeing their hard-earned cash milked by gold scammers in a clever subterfuge. Gold scammers are killing investor confidence and making nonsense of the national cause to uphold and defend the good name of Ghana. Their evil activity adds up to the festering canker of poverty, as gold buyers who fear these scammers take their business elsewhere, depriving the country's kith and kin of a better life.

Millions of dollars belonging to investors, who genuinely come to buy gold, get swindled. Victims of these scams get distressed and destroyed in the process. Those who endure usually leave with sad songs about the former Gold Coast. Gold bars are fraudulently swapped for brass and it is a disturbing cycle of evil trumping goodwill in the land of gold.

An investigation by The New Crusading GUIDE (as part of the ongoing Africa Investigates series on Al Jazeera) has unmasked the faces behind a highly networked gold scam engine operated by a syndicate across the West African sub-region.

The scam engine, fronted by a fake gold business under the name Abibirem Mining Company is composed of businessmen, law enforcement officers and some officials connected to government. They have free access to Ghana Airport's VIP lounge, a leading bank, traditional chiefs, and law firms —all part of a grand performance that taints the reputation of mother Ghana. The fake company, Abibirem Mining Company Limited, is advertised online as a Ghanaian-based mining company having “high quality gold in large quantity for immediate sells.” It operates by enticing potential investors from abroad with the promise of providing them with relatively cheap gold. After a luring pitch, the scamming syndicate usually manages to bring the investors into the country, the investors pay large amounts of money without the promised gold.

The New Crusading GUIDE's ace investigative reporter, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, went undercover as a footballer from the Middle East under the name Abdul Hamid. Together with a foreign investor he managed to gather hardcore video and audio evidence to smash the operations of the fake company.

“WELCOME TO GHANA, THE LAND OF GOLD”
The plane from Dubai landed at the Kotoka International Airport earlier than expected. Outside the gates of the Airport's VIP lounge stood a wine colored 2010 Land Cruiser – a full-sized SUV with a luxurious interior. The driver of the car, a well-built man in dark spectacles, had carefully positioned the car to enable any incoming passenger to enter with ease.

Inside the lounge, a Ghanaian man slips a $50 dollar bill into the hands of an Airport security official, beckons at a middle-aged Jordanian national who had just arrived and gives him a firm handshake. “Ahmed Bilal?” he asked. “Yes.” “Welcome to Ghana, the land of gold.” He took his luggage and both men moved out of the VIP lounge into the back seat of the waiting SUV, which took them straight to a plush Hotel – located a few minutes away.

Ahmed Bilal, the Jordanian national took the elevator to his room on the 5th floor of the hotel, while the driver of the SUV and his partner waited for him in the lobby. Ahmed returned moments later with a friend in a football jersey who donned a trendy Mohawk hairstyle with dark sunglasses to match. After meeting the two men waiting in the lobby, the group of four moved towards the swimming pool area to have a meeting on this gold business – the reason for the Jordanian national's trip to Ghana.

The driver and his counterpart are junior members of a scamming syndicate sent to welcome the latest fish into their net of fraud. Unknown to these scammers, the Jordanian national has previously been burned by these scamming syndicates who lure foreigners into Ghana and defraud them. Having once passed through their carefully plotted motions of duping others, he projects a calm demeanor. This time, he is on a mission to help bust these criminals. His friend, the footballer, is the role played by our ace investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas.

TOO GOOD FOR REALITY
Approximately two hours after the junior members left their guest, Patrick Boakye, the Chief of the scamming syndicate called Ahmed. He wanted to have a formal meeting the following day to discuss details of the business. He called a venue. Ahmed hesitated; then made his own suggestion for a venue – a Turkish restaurant located in East Legon, Accra. There is silence at the other end. “Okay, if you insist,” Patrick intoned.

At exactly 7pm, Ahmed and his footballer friend (Anas) arrived at the Turkish restaurant for the business meeting with Patrick. Dressed in the traditional Arab scarf, Keffiyeh, Ahmed and his friend were also operating at their utmost to remain believable. Patrick was swayed.

At dinner that night, Patrick produced his business registration documents (which our checks later proved to be non-existent) and outlined the steps involved to enable Ahmed secure the amount of gold he wanted. He promised to take Ahmed to his mining site, to meet a chief in the area and also have a feel of the gold before making any purchasing decisions. The meeting ended on a note of picking Ahmed and his footballer friend up the following day.

The full price a victim of any scam pays goes beyond the price of the promised gold – as our experience revealed. On the morning of the trip to the mines, located some two hours away from Accra, Ahmed was asked to purchase some items to be given to the chief as part of custom demands. Packs of cigarettes, assorted wines, bags of rice and other items totaling some $300 were purchased on Ahmed's account for the chief.

Upon arrival at the supposed chief's palace, a full delegation made of two chiefs, linguists and some elders were waiting. The chief scammer, Patrick, it appeared, had gone ahead of time to execute this charade. An elderly man, who played the part of the chief, was introduced as Nana Aku Frimpong of Osunase (later checks proved he was a fake chief). He led the discussions: (Excerpts):

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Chief: We welcome you. We have heard about your interest in buying gold from us and have long anticipated your visit.

Ahmed: Thank you. Are you the chief here?
Chief: Yes, I am. These people here all my elders.
Ahmed: I'm also a chief
Chief: Where?
Ahmed: Middle East. How many people are under you?
Chief: The whole community. About 500,000 people. We also have many others working at the mine where we are going to take you shortly.

Ahmed: Good.
Chief: We want to do business with you so that you can later come back and invest in the development of this community.

Ahmed: Very good. I want to buy 75 kilos of gold now. Later, I would come and buy more.

--
After this conversation and a prolonged exchange of greetings, libation was poured by the chief and the team was led to the mine – a huge site exploding with illegal mining activities. Patrick revealed that he owned the entire mining site and can provide any amount of gold Ahmed needs at any point in time. Convinced their ploy had worked, they brought Ahmed back to the chief's palace where two well-built men were instructed to bring what they claimed to be 50 kilograms of gold dust. Patrick then asked Ahmed how much gold he wanted, so he could melt the gold dust into that amount. He said he had some more gold dust in a safe. Ahmed requested for 75 kilograms of gold dust to be melted into gold bars. The deal was on.

It however seemed too good to be true; we therefore took the business documents provided by Patrick for verification at the Minerals Commission – the government body responsible for regulating the mining sector. After a search through the company's database, the Manager of monitoring and evaluation disclosed that the company was fraudulent. He showed us a similar document bearing the name of the same company, apparently noted as a fake company.

“We actually received this documentation from outside, trying to check on the background of this company. Immediately, I could testify that it is a fraudulent company because we don't have anything like Ghana Export Council in this country. It's Ghana Export Promotion Council.” He further sounded a double note of indictment and caution to potential investors who are swayed with cheap prices of gold. “You don't buy gold like tomatoes in the market. Something that is worth over $50,000 and you say oh, they've gotten some people who are selling it for $35,000. I tell you, you are in for a danger”.

THE CHARADE CONTINUES
With our business taking an apparently successful turn, Patrick and his group of scammers planned some advanced tactics to ensure Ahmed's confidence in the whole process. The group suggested an investment lawyer to give Ahmed advice on gold business. They therefore promised to pick him the next morning to the law offices.

Located within the heart of the city is a yellow two-story building marked LAW OFFICES. Patrick, together with Ahmed, entered to solicit legal advice from a legal practitioner. A lawyer, who confirmed knowing Patrick very well (he later denied), introduced himself as lawyer Adjei Lartey. With our hidden cameras on, we captured every single detail of the interaction. Here's an excerpt:

Lawyer: Ensure the person you are buying from has his own mining company, okay

Ahmed: Okay
Lawyer: Also ensure the person is a licensed buyer by PMMC. So there are two things: either he is a licensed buyer or personnel, proving that he has his own concession where he has the license to mine the gold.

Ahmed: Did you say I need a permit from PMMC?
Lawyer: No, you the buyer, you don't need to get the permit.

Ahmed: That means the person who is supposed to sell to me, right?

Lawyer: When you buy, he does the process for you. That's either a licensed freight-forwarder or gold exporter. You could be a gold exporter without necessarily being a freight-forwarder. So such a person would go with you to acquire the necessary documents, bank of Ghana Input forms etc. And then you'll give a foreign address then it would be shipped to you.

Ahmed: Is there any agreement to sign?
Lawyer: It is between you the buyer and the seller. If you have the money to pay all of that, it is up to you. If you don't have the money and you want to make part-payment and give the balance later, it is a discussion between you the buyer and the seller. The agreement is for the purposes of ensuring that nobody shortchanges the other.

Ahmed: Okay. Excuse me, can I have your business card?

Lawyer: I don't have a card, but I can give you my number

Ahmed: Write it for me and your name also.
Having secured the validation of a professional lawyer, Patrick and his team of lawyers took Ahmed to a National Bank to meet the branch manager. The Manager whom our checks later revealed as the Loans Manager of the Dansoman Branch of International Commercial Bank (name withheld) assured us that the rest of the gold would be deposited at the bank for safekeeping. Ahmed was then asked to choose one of many bars of gold in an adjoining house, which would be taken for verification at the Geological Survey Department.

The team then proceeded to the Geological Survey Department, a government run body with private mineral testing facilities. The results from the test on our bar indicated that it was 85 percent pure. It was real. Gradually, we were being led into the sinking sand.

DEATH OF FOREIGN INVESTMENTS AND INVESTMENTS

The days when Ghana was known as the Gold Coast, when precious gold nuggets littered the streets and backyards for easy picking are long gone. Those were the days when international gold prices were not as attractive as they are now. That notwithstanding, many foreign investors are led into believing that cheap gold is still accessible in Ghana. Consequently, most of these investors put together their lifesavings and hook it to promises made to them by charlatans who claim to be gold dealers. Often, they get duped and robbed of such valuable lifesavings by the fake gold dealers. Clearly, the criminal underworld appears to be roving in billions of dollars from the unsuspecting investor from this type of fraud.

In 2010, Todd, an American investor travelled into Ghana to engage in a gold business. After an initially successful deal in the gold trade, he went to the United Sates and returned to Ghana to seal another enticing deal. After a preliminary testing which proved the genuineness of the gold, Todd moved to the final stage of shipment only to realize that the gold had been replaced with brass. This time, he was scammed when finalizing a deal for 56 kilograms of gold at a local refinery called Asavasa.

His ordeal did not end there. After lodging a complaint with the Ghana Police, the scammers began threatening him. On many occasions, he was trailed by the scammers with death threats. As an investor, Todd's confidence in Ghana's gold industry was shaken, albeit by dubious gold dealers.

“The biggest problem here is that a foreigner loses his money, they go to try to do something and then they come in, it's like a mafia: they threaten them, they scare the people, and then they just pack up and they leave their money behind,” he said.

Like Todd, many foreigners are lured by fly-by-night gold dealers into gold investments in Ghana, based on the country's reputation as one of the world's leading producers of gold. These foreigners usually come into contact with the syndicates through online advertisements and unsolicited emails or calls. They come with very attractive investment pitches. A usual promise of relatively cheap gold is what pushes many a foreigner to the shores of Ghana. In the course of the deal, every lap of the transaction is well planned and carried out till the investor is ripped off. For some of these foreign businessmen and investors, a lifetime of savings is drained by the scammers in a single moment. Many are devastated. Some commit suicide. Lives get altered forever.

A DENTED IMAGE OF GHANA
Gold scams form a part of a far-reaching crime of cyber fraud, for which Ghana is now ranked in the world's top ten. Cyber crime in Ghana takes on many different forms including: document fraud, identity theft, prize-winning scams, cloning of websites, data theft and even kidnapping and extortion. Police records show that most of these scams operate through unsolicited emails, social networking/dating sites, hijacking of email accounts and the stealing of credit card accounts among others. According to the Director of Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, gold scam cases in Ghana remain a troubling phenomenon which has become an area of concern to the nation's security agencies.

The Director, Prosper K. Agblor, in an interview with The New Crusading GUIDE expressed his disgust by such acts and stressed that the Ghana Police would do all it took to ensure that they do not create further problems for the image of Ghana.

“The impact that these scams have on the people and the economy of Ghana cannot be underestimated, and since most of the victims are foreigners the image that is being sent out there about Ghana is not a good one at all,” he said.

In 2007, the Vetting and Crime Analysis Unit of the CID registered about 10 gold scam cases in the year. This number has, however, seen a sharp rise. Across the country, over 40 cases of gold scamming have been reported this year, with financial losses totaling more than $15 million for individual investors and companies. This is making it a phenomenon that gives no sign of abating. The facts in each case of gold scam, usually follows the same pattern as uncovered by our investigations and in Todd's case.

“Some have lost about 200,000, some in millions of dollars,” said Ralph Samani, Chief of Operations at the Vetting and Crime Analysis unit. He recalled a memorable incident which he handled: “Yes, for instance in this case, the guy or the victim saw real gold and when this box was brought to the police we opened it in his presence and lo and behold we found pavement blocks and then sand. He was shocked because initially this is not what he saw. Actually, he nearly collapsed.” Often, a part of the country's reputation as an investment destination is rubbed in the mud.

CRUNCH TIME
On the final day of the transaction, a contingent of officers from the CID of the Ghana Police Service besieged the premises of a hotel at East Legon in Accra, where the business exchange was to take place. Chief of Operations of the CID's Vetting and Crime Analysis Unit, Ralph Samani, who was privy to all that had transpired, took his men to the venue before the planned time of the transaction.

The Chief Scammer, Patrick, now convinced that he had finally clinched the deal, arrived at the venue without the gold. He had secured another hotel room nearby for his team members. Citing security concerns, he asked Ahmed to move to where his team members were, where the gold was waiting. He told Ahmed to leave the money at our hotel, and only after the gold had been weighed, would Patrick return with Ahmed to receive payment. Ralph was being updated on the entire situation. The plan was to begin the arrests when Ahmed and Patrick left to get the money.

At their hotel, the gold was waiting. As we went through the weighing process, the police force was tipped to prepare for action. After weighing the gold, Ahmed and Patrick left to collect the payment.

Back at Patrick's hotel, the rest of the scammers were still in the room. This made it a lot easy to arrest them all. In all eight men were arrested by the Police. Tests conducted by the Police on the 75 kilos of gold confirmed that it was indeed fake. Only one gold bar, which must have been used for the gold purity test at the Geological Survey, was real.

The eight men, who all played a key role in the scamming syndicate, together with the lawyer, chiefs, fake bank manager and other accomplices were captured on hardcore audio and video files, which have been submitted to Law enforcement officials for action.

NEXT: An Insider's Tale – In our next edition, we bring you the details of a scammer's revelation of how the scamming engine operates. This includes the number of professionals and organizations engaged in scams and how the booty is shared at the end of the day. The story reveals some of the biggest scamming deals orchestrated with the aid of some state ministers. Letterheads of well known companies, websites of some banks are usually cloned to aid these efforts. Stay tuned.