The whereabouts of the 21 refined gold bars, which were seized from Shaanxi Mining Company Limited in Ghana’s capital Accra in 2021 by the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) and later placed in the custody of the National Security Secretariat (NSS), have been uncovered after a long search and refusal by government officials to provide answers.
The 83kg gold bricks, said to be worth six million United States dollars (US$6,000,000.00), are in the possession of the Chinese company and its one-time Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Wei Xing.
But how did they get the brick-shaped bars back from the Ghanaian state authorities who obviously did not want the public to know how they were released behind closed doors?
The lid on the whereabouts of the gold blocks got blown off when a certain Dr. Shadrack Asare, a Ghanaian businessman and legal consultant, sued the company, Wei Xing and Dr. Ernest Acheampong at the General Jurisdiction 1 in Accra.
Dr. Asare ran to court after reportedly facilitating the release of the seized gold bars at the Jubilee House (the Seat of the Government of Ghana) in November, 2021, on behalf of the mining company but the foreign firm, now known as Earl International Group (Ghana) Gold Limited, declined to pay him an agreed facilitation fee of three hundred thousand United States dollars (US$300,000.00) after the gold bars were released.
A former presidential staffer told the author of this report that former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo set up an ad hoc committee at the Jubilee House to engage Dr. Asare during the facilitation process. The staffer said Wei Xing also petitioned the former president concerning the gold seizure.
The source further made it known that Akufo-Addo presided over that committee but later handed over the responsibility to his Executive Secretary, Nana Bediatuo Asante, and former Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor.
After a series of engagements, the government released the gold bars to the company and Wei Xing, the former presidential staffer disclosed.
The public would recall that Rockson Ayine Bukari, a former Minister of State at the Presidency, mentioned a Shaanxi CEO as a major player in a 2018 bribery scandal exposed by the author of this report as part of an investigative series he conducted into judicial corruption in the Upper East region.
The scandal led to Bukari’s resignation from the Akufo-Addo government on Monday, 29 April 2019. It also occasioned the “disciplinary transfer” and “demotion” of a supervising high court judge, Jacob Bawine Boon, from the Upper East region.
Justice Boon was monitored and caught as he held multiple secret meetings at his Bolgatanga residence with Shaanxi officials at the time he was sitting on a trespass-and-gold-theft case that had Shaanxi as a defendant against an Australian company, Cassius Mining Limited— the plaintiff in the civil lawsuit.
When he was approached in his courtroom on Monday, 17 December 2018, with evidence of the ex-parte meetings, he confessed to meeting with Shaanxi officials privately at his residence and, then, recused himself from the case.
The case was remitted to another high court judge, Asmah Akwasi Asiedu, by the Chief Justice at the time, Sophia Akuffo.
But did Dr. Asare get his fee from Shaanxi and Wei Xing in court for facilitating the release of the gold?
No, he did not. The reason is explained below.
The case, entered as Suit Number GJ/0167/2023, began with Shaanxi and Wei Xing filing a motion on notice as 1st and 2nd defendants on Thursday, 15 December 2022, asking the court to dismiss the writ of summons and statement of claim brought by the plaintiff (Dr. Asare).
The court struck out the motion, after which Shaanxi and Wei Xing filed a joint statement of defence on Wednesday, 1 February 2023.
Dr. Asare told the court he was approached in October, 2021, by Dr. Acheampong (the 3rd defendant mentioned earlier) and a team of Shaanxi workers to facilitate the release of the gold bars.
He (Dr. Asare) also told the court the gold consignment weighed 80kg and was worth four million United States dollars (US$4,000,000.00). In addition to that, he described Dr. Acheampong as a special assistant to Wei Xing and a former Shaanxi employee.
The plaintiff further said the parties agreed before he undertook the facilitation assignment that all three defendants were to pay him US$300,000.00 or its cedi equivalent if he succeeded. He said they also agreed not to use his own letterheads for the agreement because doing so might portray an intention to litigate in the future.
The 3rd defendant (Dr. Acheampong) confirmed in court that he engaged Dr. Asare after he was instructed by the 1st and 2nd defendants to find someone with the “requisite capacity” to enable the release of the gold bars. He said there were some text messages and recordings of the telephone conversations he had with Wei Xing to that effect.
Judgment
Dr. Acheampong added that Wei Xing instructed him to contact Shaanxi’s general manager, Li Xinlong, to be on standby to pay Dr. Asare for his services upon the success of the facilitation contract.
He said when he contacted Li Xinlong, Li Xinlong told him Wei Xing had already instructed him to pay some cash to Dr. Asare through him (Dr. Acheampong).
While telling the court that he was not liable for any breach of contract because he only acted on instructions from Shaanxi and Wei Xing, Dr. Acheampong also made it clear before the court that Shaanxi and Wei Xing “cannot run away from their liability under the circumstance” since Dr. Asare successfully executed the facilitation assignment.
On their part, Shaanxi and Wei Xing told the court Dr. Acheampong had never been a Shaanxi employee. And they said they never authorised him to engage the services of Dr. Asare or any person on their behalf regarding the seized gold bars. But they confirmed in court that the gold bars were released to them by the Government of Ghana.
When Dr. Acheampong was asked to produce evidence to show that Shaanxi and Wei Xing authorised or instructed him to engage Dr. Asare, he said the authority was verbal.
“I also verified from the 1st and 2nd defendants before offering them my services,” Dr. Asare affirmed during his cross-examination.
But Shaanxi and Wei Xing further denied in court there was any such authority or instruction.
On Monday, 21 October 2024, the court concluded that Dr. Asare was unable to prove there was a contract between him and the two defendants.
It held that the 1st and 2nd defendants accordingly did not breach any contract and, therefore, could not be indebted to Dr. Asare to the tune of US$300,000.00 or any amount with regard to the case.
“And for costs,” said the judge, Kwasi Adjenim-Boateng, after dismissing the case. “I award the sum of Gh¢20,000.00 against the plaintiff in favour of the 1st and 2nd defendants.”
Background of the seized gold bars
The gold bars were confiscated by the NIB at the Kotoka International Airport on Tuesday, 1 June 2021.
The NIB arrested three employees of the Chinese company— Rayn Lee, a Chinese; Goa, a Chinese; and Michael Atta, a Ghanaian— who conveyed the gold bullion from Talensi, a mining district in the Upper East region, through the Tamale International Airport (now called Yakubu Tali International Airport) to Accra.
A Ghanaian-born business partner of the Chinese company, Charles Taleog Ndanbon, hinted the NIB about the move, leading to the arrests.
Ndanbon has been waging a legal battle with Shaanxi (Earl) at a different court in northern Ghana and he says the 21 bars of gold were taken from his concession in Talensi without his consent.
It was believed— and reported— that the company intended to smuggle the gold bars out of Ghana to China through Dubai before they were seized.
The NIB conducted a post-arrest investigation into the development and forwarded a report on the matter to the National Security.
Requests made by some journalists and lawyers for information on the whereabouts of the seized gold bars yielded no results from the Ministry of National Security, headed by Albert Kan-Dapaah, under the previous government.
Until the publication of this latest story, the location of the gold bars was kept under wraps. And it could have remained hidden for a longer period than imagined had Dr. Asare not gone to court.
When this author contacted the public relations unit of the Chinese company in May, this year, about the whereabouts of the gold bars, it elusively replied that “the matter was appropriately resolved and properly closed.”
The discovery of where the gold bars have been for the past four years is going to open a new episode of legal disputes against the company in the days ahead, Media Without Borders has learnt.
There is more.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
