Fraud Gang Busted
THE Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service has busted a fraud gang which managed to dupe an Israeli company of $678,000 under the pretext of supplying it with two boxes of precious minerals.
The leader of the gang, Clement Ogwuvwu Asabah, 42, alias ‘Dr’ Frank, a Nigerian who goes by two other names, Ben Krobo and Dada Nortey, has been arrested, together with an accomplice, Mohammed Haruna Aminu, 39.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Dennis Akrob-Dem of the CID Headquarters in Accra said in an interview that on June 16, 2003, two officials from the Ketter Investment Company in Israel arrived in the country and reported to the police that some people have duped their company of several thousands of dollars.
They claimed the money was paid in instalments to a subsidiary of a Ghanaian company in Holland, called Pyramid Trust Services.
DSP Akrob-Dem said the two Israelis further told the police that their company established contact in 1999 through the Internet with Pyramid Trust Services in Holland and its affiliate company in Ghana, the West Africa Global Security Company, for the supply of gold and diamonds.
He said the two men showed the police several correspondence between their company and West Africa Global Security and in one of them, ‘Dr’ Frank claimed he owned a mining company in Ghana called the Black Ark Mining Company.
He said the Israelis were informed by ‘Dr’ Frank that the company had in its possession about 200 kilogrammes of alluvial gold dust and the quality was 22 carat. He quoted the price of one kilogram as $6,200.
The two men told the police that Clement introduced himself as the ‘Dr’ Frank, Executive director of the Ghanaian company, and won their confidence when he managed to send them some gold dust.
According to the DSP, Clement promised to send two boxes of gold to the company and they transferred several thousands of dollars to him.
He said the last instalment was $78,000, which was transferred in April this year through Pyramid to the Ghana Commercial Bank in Accra.
He said after waiting in vain for some time without receiving the minerals, the manager of the Ketter called ‘Dr’ Frank on his cell phone and he told the company that everything was ready and that he needed additional money to enable him to ship the consignment.
At this stage the directors of Ketter became suspicious that ‘Dr’ Frank was out to dupe them so they contacted Pyramid in Holland and they were informed that the West African company had only contracted it to transfer the money to them but they had not been able to contact them since the transfer.
When later they were able to contact ‘’Dr’ Frank and enquired from him why he had failed to deliver the minerals, he told them that he needed more money before the shipment of the boxes.
Ketter Company, therefore, sent down two employees of the company to Accra, upon an agreement to meet ‘Dr’ Frank at the Golden Tulip Hotel.
On arrival in the country, the two Israelis alerted the police and some policemen were detailed to the hotel to track down the fraudsters.
DSP Akrob-Dem said Haruna showed up at the hotel and told the two Israelis that ‘Dr’ Frank had sent him to collect the money for him but he was arrested and taken to the house of Clement and he was also arrested.
When ‘Dr’ Frank’s house was searched, the police found computers, fax machines, other office accessories and several letterheads bearing the name of the company.