Two Nigerians are in the grips of the law for swindling a German of 248.557.91 Euros under the pretext of supplying her with gold.
Mark Latif Adigun and Benjamin Taefick Oluwashola, currently on bail, have pleaded not guilty to defrauding by false pretences.
Adigun, the first accused, introduced himself to Ms. Waltraud Wiesent, the victim, through internet conversation in 2011 as Chris Walters of Nottingham, United Kingdom who does business in Ghana.
Parading as a gold and auto car parts dealer, he told Wiesent, 57, a technical engineer, that he had won a contract with the government of Ghana and needed 15,500 Euros to clear some goods from the port.
To authenticate his request, Adigun sent Ms. Wiesent a duplicate of the supposed contract agreement and a memorandum of understanding.
Convinced with the documents, Ms. Wiesent sent Adigun 15,500 Euros.
Ms. Wiesent narrated this at an Accra Circuit Court yesterday through Mrs. Victoria Antwi, an interpreter at the Ghana Institute of Languages.
Led in evidence by the prosecutor Chief Inspector Emmanuel Afful, Ms Wiesent told the court that the accused invited her to Ghana to see his business.
She said on her arrival at the Kotoka International Airport, a taxi driver allegedly sent by Adigun, drove her to Hotel GS PLAZA where a room was reserved for her.
Two hours later, one Evans Agyemang, came to her and introduced himself as Chris Walters’ lawyer and told her Walters had been arrested for doing gold business without permit.
Lawyer Agyemang, according to Ms Wiesent showed her Walters’ pictures, the supposed memorandum of understanding, the contract agreement and a duplicate of Walters’ passport.
Agyemang also informed the victim that Walters was seriously ill and needed some money from her to purchase some medicines.
Agyemang further requested 375,000 Euros for legal action for Walters to be released from jail and to obtained permit to do his gold business.
Ms. Wiesent said Lawyer Agyemang took 3,000 Euros and 250 British pounds sterling before leaving the hotel.
The next day, Agyemang returned to the hotel with a note seeking her consent to be her lawyer.
She appended her signature to the document, which Agyemang promised to serve her a copy.
Thereafter, she was taken to Agyemang’s office where she met Adigun who introduced himself as Mark Adjei, a business partner of Chris Walters.
She said Adigun told her he was the owner of a security company where Chris Walters’ gold was kept.
She said Adigun, Agyemang and herself went to a room where a box was opened with bars of gold in it and asked to pick a bar, which she obliged, but it was returned to the box, locked and the keys handed to her.
There and then, the accused gave their phone numbers and email address and collected 375,000 Euros from Ms. Wiesent.
Agyemang, the supposed lawyer, told her he was busy attending to clients in court and asked Oluwashola to deal with her.
Ms. Wiesent said the accused later took her to another bank where she was asked to sign some documents. They also took her passport pictures to open a bank account in her name and then went back to the security room.
This time, a box purported to contain 125,000,000 dollars was shown to her. After that they requested for 375,000 Euros from her with the promise that she would get the gold and the said amount.
At this juncture, the victim went back to Germany, sold all her shares, took a loan from her bank and sent the 375,000 Euros to the accused.
After receiving the money, the accused invited her again to Ghana but she was told upon arrival that the government of Ghana had confiscated the gold.
Adigun alleged that he took a loan for Walters and because of that he had lost all his property. The accused made another request to enable him pursue the case in court for which she gave him 3,000 Euros and 150 dollars.
Ms. Wiesent said she went back to Germany but the accused kept pestering her to send him money through with different names he (Adigun) claimed were his staff.
“I thought everything was real and genuine and the first accused told me always that he got the money I sent to him through those names,” stated Ms. Wiesent.
She said the accused invited her to Ghana for the third time. She was picked at the airport to the Oware Guest House.
One day, Adigun took her to an uncompleted building and told her he was building a hotel and that he wanted to register it in their name and needed money from her to complete it.
Realising that the whole deal was a sham, she reported the matter to the police and on her fourth visit, the accused were arrested at the Safcal Lodge near Pantang junction.
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