Joe Ghartey-led parliamentary committee continues probe into customers' locked funds at Blackshield Capital

Joe Ghartey during a meeting

The Special Committee of Parliament chaired by Joe Ghartey, on Friday, March 1, 2024, continued their inquiry into matters relating to the locked-up funds of customers of Blackshield Capital Ltd (formerly Gold Coast Fund Management Ltd) in the recent financial clean-up exercise.

Evidence was led by the Registrar of Companies and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Both institutions stated that the court process challenging the process of liquidation of Black Shields Company Ltd is what has hampered their ability to deal with the customers.

They said that Blackshield had commenced a court process that prevented the official liquidator from proceeding.

The committee requested the Official Liquidator to produce and tender all documents relating to the court process at the next sitting of the Committee.

The Committee was also concerned about the seemly slow pace of the development of the law to meet contemporary challenges.

The slow pace of law reform was bemoaned especially at this time of the rapid development of the financial sector and the introduction of new products such as digital currencies, such as Bitcoins.

This was after the Registrar of Companies had indicated that the current law on liquidation, the Corporate Insolvency and Restructuring Act, 2020 (Act 1015), was a marked improvement of the Bodies Corporate (Official Liquidation) Act which was passed in 1963.

The committee wondered why it had taken so many years for it to be repealed. This led the Registrar of Companies, Jemima Oware, to recount the role of the Chairman of the committee, Joe Ghartey, in the development and review on various laws on companies when he was Attorney-General and Minister of Justice between 2006 and 2009.

She also acknowledged the role of the Ghana Association of Restructuring and Insolvency Advisors (GARIA).

The sitting will continue on Monday, March 4, 2024.

Other members of the committee are Nii Lante Vanderpuye, Kwesi Ameyaw-Chiremeh, Gizella Tetteh Agbotui, and Dr Benjamin Yeboah Sekyere.