Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo has asked TV Network Aljazeera to retract and apologise over its unfair and inaccurate ‘Gold Mafia ’documentary against him and the government of Ghana.
Al Jazeera’s latest investigation, Gold Mafia, has uncovered a band of criminals driving gold smuggling and money laundering worth billions of dollars in Southern Africa.
Alistair Mathias, described by the investigative reporters as a financial architect who builds money laundering schemes for corrupt politicians, was approached by undercover journalists posing as Chinese criminals to help them launder money from China.
Speaking to the undercover reporters while trying to strike a deal, he alleged that President Akufo-Addo is his friend and was his lawyer too.
Alistair had earlier revealed that he has been smuggling $40 million worth of gold from Ghana monthly, which is US $480 million worth of gold annually.
However, a letter signed by Secretary to the President Nana Bediatuo Asante gave Aljazeera 7 days to retract and apologise to President Akufo-Addo.
“I am instructed by the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to demand formally that Al Jazeera Media Network (Al Jazeera”) retract immediately and apologise for airing an inaccurate and unfair documentary that contained spurious and unsubstantiated allegations against the President and the Government of Ghana.”
“It is imperative that you act forthwith on this request within seven (7) days from the day of receipt of this letter,” it stated.
Below is the full letter:
Meanwhile Guldrest Resources Company Ltd, a gold exporting enterprise registered in Ghana, which is at the centre of a recent publication by the international media house Al-Jazeera, has responded to the investigative piece, describing it as spurious, a bunch of untruths and bereft of substance.
It has also emerged that the main character in the investigative piece, Alistair Jude Mathias, has no connection with President Akufo-Addo and neither does the law firm that President Akufo-Addo founded.
Moreover, his claim that “Ghana’s president [Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo] is a good friend of mine. In fact, he was my lawyer,” is completely false.
Reacting to the comment by Alistair Mathias, Kow Essuman, the legal counsel to President Akufo-Addo, described Mathias’s allegations as spurious and called on Ghanaians to ignore them.
Essuman observed that the president has not been in private practice since 2000 and insisted that his client has never acted as Mathias’s counsel.
“The president has not been in private practice since 2000; neither has the president nor his law firm, Akufo-Addo, Prempeh & Co, acted as lawyer for this Alistair Mathias or Guldrest. The president does not know this Mathias or Guldrest. Ignore the spurious allegations,” said Essuman, writing on Twitter.
NDC honcho
Court records rather show that when a case involving two Ghanaians who stood surety for Mathias, a Canadian businessman, came up for hearing in September 2014, they were neither represented by the President Akufo-Addo nor his law firm.
The records also point to the fact that one Mustapha Gbande, a special aide to the then national chairman of the National Democratic Congress, Kwabena Adjei, stood surety the businessman Mathias. Gbande is now the deputy general secretary of the NDC.
Guldrest Resources Company Ltd states in its rejoinder: “Between the sixth and seventh days of April 2023, the attention of Guldrest Resources Company Ltd was drawn to some publications by Al Jazeera News Network and its investigative unit on some spurious and scathing allegations of gold smuggling and money laundering levelled against Guldrest Resources, a registered Ghanaian company.
“Guldrest Resources Ghana wishes to react to the aforementioned damning publications as follows:
“The contents of the said allegations of 6-7 April 2023 are without any substance of fact and truth. We implore all who have read the said fake news to ignore same as palpable falsehood and unethically made, in utmost bad faith, and actuated by malice.
In a letter dated 23 March 2023 and delivered on 31 March 2023, Al Jazeera and its cronies alleged that according to their investigative report, Guldrest Resources FZC in the United Arab Emirates received laundered cash equivalent to US$16 million from Kaloti Jewellery International DMCC in 2012.
Guldrest Resources Ghana duly responded in writing on 3 April 2023 and denied these claims as untrue and bereft of substance. It then also put Al-Jazeera and cronies to proof.
Al Jazeera then changed its story on 4 April 2023 via email and alleged that Guldrest Resources Ghana rather had a subsidiary company in Dubai, called Guldrest Resources FZC. The broadcaster therefore wished to inquire whether this entity (Guldrest Resource FZC) had received the cash equivalent of $16 million from Kaloti Jewellery International DMCC in 2012.
Guldrest Resources Ghana rebutted this claim as false and spineless, according to a letter dated 5 April 2023 in response to the original request. The rebuttal was made through this email address: righttoreply@aljazeera.net (Whatsapp +44 7908 782 675).
Company of repute
Guldrest Resources avers that NO credible investigative report exists at all showing any involvement by the company in illegal trading of gold. There is also no video in which Alistair Mathias, an alleged gold smuggler and money launderer, claims to be the owner of Guldrest Resources, or uses Guldrest Resources Ghana to smuggle gold outside Ghana or launder money to and from Ghana, or shows proof of any such relationship at all.
The alleged claims are false, Guldrest Resources Ghana insists. It is a reputable, law-abiding company of repute and does not engage in illicit trade.
In the responses by Guldrest Resources Ghana, the company made it categorically clear that the scathing allegations by Al Jazeera and its investigative unit were unjust, injurious and actionable in law.
Guldrest Resources Ghana has accordingly instructed its lawyers to explore the option of legal action against the publishers responsible.
Guldrest Resources Ghana assured the public again that it respects the laws of Ghana and all international protocols.
It further urged the public to ignore the aforesaid publications by Al Jazeera and its cronies as “fake news or falsehood”.
