Pyram Boss On Trial

After eluding personnel of the national security for over five years, the Managing Director of the Pyram Business Consultancies, Tanko Rahman Shadow, has been busted and thrown into the cooler on the orders of an Accra Circuit Tribunal.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Mrs. Elizabeth Olando, prosecuting, prayed the court to remand the accused in custody because victims of the Pyram fiasco have been trooping to the police to give their statements, adding that the matter is of national interest since many people have lost their lives through the Pyram savings.

The accused was apprehended last Thursday at Tema Community One, when one of the numerous victims, Alhaji Abudulai Haruna Rashid, who had invested over 280 million cedis in the Pyram business, alerted the police. The prosecution told the court, chaired by Mr. Mohammed Nanbon, that the accused formed a private company called Pyram Loans and Savings Company, at Accra New Town and invited members of the public to invest in the company with a return of a 30 per cent monthly interest.

Prosecution said with this invitation complainant pumped in 280 million cedis since 1994 as his contribution but had never received a dime. The prosecution said that in early 1995, the Bank of Ghana issued a directive to all private loan companies unregistered with the bank to stop operating as savings and loans companies. According to the prosecution, the directive affected Pyram, and the accused, therefore, absconded, and several efforts by the national security to arrest him proved futile.

However, counsel for the accused, Mr. Gabriel Pwamang, told the court that the facts as presented by the prosecution indicate that the case is purely a civil matter and should not have been brought to the circuit tribunal. He, therefore, prayed the court to grant his client bail. Mr. Nanbo remanded the accused till November 9, this year, to allow the investigators to do a proper job.