Blackshield Fund Management, a subsidiary of Groupe Nduom is challenging the decision of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to revoke its license.
The company said it was disappointed that SEC decided to take the action although it had requested for support in retrieving monies owed it by various government entities.
In a statement on Friday, the company said, SEC in announcing the reasons for the revocation of their license, peddled many untruths, including saying that “99.41% of Blackshield’s funds were placed in one investment vehicle.”
Blackshiled Fund Management, formerly known as Gold Coast Fund Management and 52 other Fund Management Companies had its license revoked by SEC on Friday for various infractions.
This evening [Friday], the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) posted a Notice of revocation of the licenses of various Fund Management Companies, including Blackshield Capital Management (Formerly Gold Coast Fund Management). Groupe Nduom Limited, the entity representing the interests of the majority shareholders and founders of Blackshield, would like to note the following:
1.1. We are disappointed that SEC would take this action without responding to the
numerous requests to a) assist Blackshield in retrieving funds owed by various
Government of Ghana entities; and b) review our plans to migrate customers into a
private sector solution to Blackshield’s liquidity problem.
1.2. SEC’s Notice No. SEC/PN/012/11/2019 regrettably includes a number of
misleading and/or untrue statements, including the assertion that 99.41% of
Blackshield’s funds were placed in one investment vehicle.
1.3. We will continue to pursue legal action to collect funds owed in settlement of
Blackshield client liabilities.
1.4. In the meantime, we ask all stakeholders to remain calm as we all wait for more
details from SEC on the way forward.
For several months, customers who had invested monies with the company have not been paid their dividends nor been able to withdraw their investments entirely.
Last month, the company said it could pay back the about 59,000 customers’ locked up monies by the year 2022.
It has indicated that it has been able to pay off a little over 9,000 customers out of its 68,000 leaving 59,000 people who are yet to receive their monies.
The spokesperson for the company, Benjamin Afreh said that much effort is being done by the company to raise money to pay off its clients.
“I admit that it will not take less than two years to pay everybody off. I’m not sure it will go beyond three years. So far we’ve paid over GHc200 million to customers. And I so said, there is a lot of work we’re doing behind the scenes hopefully to raise a lot of money. So once we do that, I am sure a lot more customers will be paid and the pay will be much faster than we witness,” he said.
But customers have berated the company, accusing it of being disingenuous.