NDC MP Busted Over $30,000 Gold Deal

The Member of Parliament for Sene in the Brong Ahafo Region, Felix Twumasi-Appiah, is in trouble, as he faces criminal charges for fraudulent practices with regard to a gold deal.

The loquacious MP has been charged for conspiracy to commit crime and defrauding by false pretences after allegedly taking $30,000 meant for a complainant, from the police. He is on a GH¢200,000 bail while his accomplice, Juan Carlos, a Spanish national, is being held at the CID headquarters.

This is not the first time the MP has been involved in fraudulent deals. A few years back, he was linked with a similar gold deal, with the case landing at the Greater Accra Police Command under DCOP Douglas Akrofi-Asiedu.

Mr Twumasi-Appiah was said to have misrepresented himself to the police and succeeded in fraudulently causing the police to release the $30,000 meant for a Spanish businessman, Juan Francisco Osorio Lozano, to Juan Carlos, without the consent of the former.

The MP is accused of conniving with Juan Carlos to defraud Juan Lozano of the $30,000 paid by a mining company, as part of the refund of money paid by the businessman for the supply of gold.

Sources at the CID headquarters told Daily Guide yesterday that Twumasi Appiah was invited on Tuesday evening when the Spanish businessman, Mr Lozano, whom the MP claimed had instructed him to collect the money on his behalf, suddenly turned up at the CID headquarters demanding his money which was paid to the CID by the mining company.

The MP was subsequently arrested yesterday when he showed up at the CID headquarters for further interrogation, with the GH¢20,0000 bail slapped on him.

According to sources, the gold mining company had agreed to refund the money paid by the Spanish businessman for the supply of gold in tranches, and after collecting two tranches of $160,000, the company could not pay the last tranche of $110,000, promising to do so in two installments.

It therefore paid $30,000 to the CID for Juan Lozano to collect. However, while Twumasi-Appiah who speaks Spanish fluently due to his training in Cuba, was leading the businessman in the gold transaction, he was allegedly plotting to fleece the man.

He got Juan Carlos, who had been following the businessman for the transaction, to tell the police that Mr Lozano had instructed him to collect the $30,000 because the businessman was indisposed and holed up in Spain. Twumasi Appiah was said to have got the Ghana Embassy in Spain to refuse the businessman an entry visa to Ghana to chase his money.

Juan Lozano was therefore refused an entry visa as allegedly instructed by the Sene MP. The businessman had to issue threats to sue the embassy if he was unable to recover his money before the officials caved in and granted him the entry visa.

With an honourable MP in the frontline, the police did not suspect any foul play and subsequently released the money to Juan Carlos, only for the businessman to show up, demanding the money. This sudden turn of events perplexed the CID chief who was handling the case, leading to the invitation of the MP, who was shocked to see the businessman at the CID headquarters on his arrival.

The Sene MP was said to have confessed to the police CID that he did not talk to the businessman at the time he claimed that he had his instructions for the money to be released to Juan Carlos. Juan Carlos told the police in his statement that he gave $10,000 of the money to Twumasi Appiah, a police source told DAILY GUIDE.

However, Twumasi-Appiah's lawyer, Josh Nimako, said his client had done no wrong. Mr Nimako told Daily Guide at the CID headquarters that the MP was only helping the man to recover the money he paid to the mining company.