US Housing Firm To Sue The Enquirer

Global Interests of Houston, Texas, is a company that has been vouched for by its bankers, JP Morgan Chase & Co. (a leading global financial services firm with assets of $1.4 trillion) and also cleared to be credit-worthy by Dun & Bradstreet (world's leading provider of international and US business credit information and credit reports). But, that did not stop Raymond Archer's Enquirer from describing it as a ghost company, which had not satisfied its tax obligations.
Through negotiations with the Minister of Water Resources, Works & Housing, the American company has agreed to build decent affordable houses for Ghanaians with its own resources but with the assurance from the Ghana government that the houses will be bought off the company.Enquirer’s concern seemed to centre around the fact that the Government of Ghana has signed a 600 billion unbinding memorandum of understanding on the sale of the relatively low cost houses to the Ghanaian public.
But in a statement issued by Global Interests lawyer, Gordon Cooper yesterday, the company is threatening a libel suit, describing Enquirer­ stories about them as "malicious and devoid of the truth.” But, they say they are still determined to go ahead with the project in spite of the media treatment they have received.The statement accuses Enquirer of behaving as if the newspaper does not understand what an MOU is.
As a company, “Global Interests,” the letter says, “has met all our tax obligations to the US Government since its formation.” Mr Cooper continues, “Please note that for the Housing Project we have agreed to do with Ghana, we are using our own and affiliate resources and have not received nor will receive any fiduciary document like a Government Guarantee, Promissory Note, etc from the Government of Ghana.”
The letter further explains, "All we have is an MOU that stipulates the price at which Government will buy the houses after we have built them. The risk is entirely ours with none whatsoever to the Government of Ghana."As Investors, Global Interests, say they "have studied and we know the current prices of residential properties in Ghana and we could have built them and sold them at the current market prices ourselves."However, during their negotiations with Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, "he pushed us to accept prices which are less than a third of what the going prices are because he said he 'wanted to provide affordable houses that the average Ghanaian worker could own and thereby deliver them from landlords who demand high rents and several years’ rent advance’.
He further requested that we even bear the cost of infrastructural works like roads and sewerage in order to make the houses immediately habitable. Our team heeded the Minister’s passionate appeal."The statement reads further, "If after conceding so much to the Honorable Minister to help the people of Ghana and all we get in the process is media bashing then we have no option than to clear our names in the Law Courts and proceed with the project to prove to all that we are capable of delivering our promise to Government."
But, they warn, "We also reserve the right to take our investment elsewhere where we will have better margins and will also be better appreciated."
Yesterday’s Enquirer said that barely a day after it revealed that Global Interests had been declared "Not in Good Standing" in the USA, the company rushed to overturn that declaration and also changed its address from 7414 Cook Road, Houston to 133 West Loops, Houston. Below are parts of the statement from the company, which explains their side of the story:
"Our attention has been drawn to the negative publications about our company that are doing the rounds in a couple of newspapers in Ghana. The said publications can only be described as malicious and devoid of the truth.
"As a company, Global Interests, LLC of Houston, Texas has met all our tax obligations to the US Government since its formation. The company retains a Certified Public Accountant who works on our books and has handled all our tax obligations over the years as the records show.
Our CPA was in the process of submitting our tax returns when we had to travel to Ghana for meeting with the officials of the Ministry of Housing. The couple of days’ delay in submitting our returns came about as a result of the absence of the President of Global Interests who had to review the forms. On his return to Houston, the forms were submitted and we did not have to clear any outstanding liabilities as the publications sought to portray.
"Anyone who is familiar with the stringent tax regime of the United States of America knows that one cannot resurrect a "Dead" company as the papers described us and secure an "SOS of Good Standing" status. That, to say the least, is an affront to our State tax system and we take serious exception to that.
"The 9807 Hobart Drive, Sugar Land property is not our office but a residential property. It is one of the several investment properties that we own in the US. We have for the past twelve years been operating at the 7414 Cook Road Address. "With the expansion of our business interests, the Cook Road offices became too small for us so we moved to our new corporate head office at 1333 W. Loop South whilst maintaining our Cook Road offices for our other departments. Indeed we used the 1333 West Loop South address for the MOU with the Ministry of Housing in Ghana.
"The move was done pending the completion of our US$100 Million Office Complex, Convention Center and hospital at 11920 South Sam Houston Parkway, a prime location in the heart of Houston. Civil Engineering works on the project have already commenced and anyone who cares to check can confirm what we are saying. These are the facts of the case. "Dr Ams represents the Corporation as its Registered Agent. This then means that his name shows up on behalf of Directors and Board Members. There is no statutory requirement to show more than one registrant per corporation in the USA. However, we are a conglomerate of several divisions with Directors, Boards, Vice Presidents etc…"
Their statement ends by suggesting, "It is obvious to us that the writers of the articles have something personal against the Minister and we as Global Interests demand that we are not dragged into that as we have come to Ghana for business and business alone."