Legal practitioner, Amanda Clinton, has described the Menzgold scandal as a classic example of a sophisticated white-collar crime, arguing that the masterminds deliberately used psychology and strategic planning to identify and exploit their victims.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with GhanaWeb, Clinton said Ponzi scheme operators do not act by chance but carefully study human behaviour and design elaborate strategies to gain the trust of potential investors before orchestrating their collapse.

"It is psychological warfare. It is white-collar crime because they sit and plan the psychology of it. They plan who is our ultimate target and how are we going to get them naturally in a marketing way and how are we going to crash this system so that we don't even give two monthly payments to those people," she said.

Using Menzgold as a case study, Clinton explained that the scheme relied heavily on existing investors to attract new ones by ensuring they received timely returns in the early stages.

According to her, these satisfied investors unknowingly became the company's strongest marketers, convincing relatives, friends and colleagues to invest after witnessing the consistent payouts.

Menzgold's early success was the first red flag - Amanda Clinton

"They needed those ordinary people to be the marketers for them because those ordinary people would do the best form of marketing possible. They would go out and tell three or four people close to them how they were able to pay for their wedding, set up a company or pay off a house," she indicated.

She noted that the strategy encouraged many people to liquidate properties, secure loans and transfer money from abroad to invest in the scheme, believing it was a legitimate opportunity.

Clinton said the sophistication of such schemes makes them particularly dangerous because they are built on trust, reputation and carefully planned psychological manipulation rather than force.

She further cautioned that if law enforcement agencies fail to act promptly against individuals suspected of orchestrating such schemes, they could become emboldened, accumulate more resources and execute even more complex financial frauds in the future.

Watch the video below

Amanda Clinton explains what happened in the Menzgold-NAM1 scandal



MRA/VPO

Ask Kufuor about the money I spent and Akufo Addo the cars I bought for him Chief fumes

TWI NEWS