Information gathered indicates that Mr. Paolo Chippiani, who is the local Manager for Medea Development SA was arrested yesterday by the Airport Police Station on allegations of attempting to defraud a prominent Ghanaian (name withheld).

Medea Development SA is one of the companies which is seeking to operate in the upstream oil industry in Ghana. The Company’s registered address is provided as the 3rd Floor of Special House, 14 Senchi St. Airport, Accra.

The statement of complaint filed by the victim indicated that Mr. Chippiani, represented himself as an agent of a company based in Italy which is capable of providing financial assistance to the tune of 15 million Euros to companies doing business in Ghana. Several meetings were held between Mr. Chippiani and his victims at the registered offices of Medea Development SA in Airport.

After meeting all the other conditions stipulated by Mr. Chippiani, including the incorporation of a special purpose vehicle company to undertake the business to be financed by Mr. Chippiani’s principals, Mr. Chippiani requested for and was paid $20,000.00 as facilitation fee.

After having received the $20,000.00, Mr. Chippiani informed his victim that the funds had arrived in an Access Bank Account in Accra and the money was due for disbursement. The complaint further alleged that it has been almost a year since Mr. Chippiani received the $20,000 but has since failed to show any proof of the availability of the funds or his relationship with a financial institution in Italy.

Mr. Chippiani failed to refund the $20,000.00 despite repeated demands hence the police complaint.

Further checks conducted by this (name of news portal) revealed that this is not the first time Mr. Chippiani has been allegedly involved in such a scam.

In August 2011 and April 2013, Mr. Chippiani was arrested by the CID of the Ghana Police Service on allegations of having committed the offence of falsification of documents and stealing respectively.