25 years in US Jail for defrauding Ghanaians

Fallout of USA ?94 World Cup

THE CHIEF Executive of Gamair Travel and Tours Limited in the US, Hubert Steed, has been convicted and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment by the Supreme Court of the State of New York for his role in defrauding 250 Ghanaian spectators during the USA 1994 World Cup soccer fiesta.

Steed was jailed for failing to assist his partners in Ghana to fly 250 Ghanaian spectators to the US for the tournament after they had collected over $800,000 from the fans with the promise of sending them to watch the World Cup.

In addition, the court made a restitution order against the accused to produce the $800,000, which was transferred into his accounts in New York through the Ghana Commercial Bank meant for travel arrangements for the spectators, which he misappropriated.

Per the order, monies standing to the credit of Gamair Ltd were confiscated and transferred to the accounts of their Ghanaian partners, Bestway Travel and Tours Limited by the District Attorney?s office of the County of New York.

Bestway Travel and Tours Limited was established in 1986 to engage in the business of travel and tours.

The late Jonathan Kwesi Eyeson was the Chief Executive with Elizabeth Anyemfoa Dadson, Mrs. Monica Evans-Quayson, Nana Amoako Atta and George Osei Kofi as the directors.

In line with its registered objectives it ran advertisements in the media to send Ghanaian spectators to the USA for the 1994 world cup.

As a result 250 spectators who were desirous to watch the tournament responded to the advert and paid the fare to the company.

The Chronicle gathered that as part of the arrangement for the tour, Bestway entered into an agreement with Gamair to complete all the necessary formalities on behalf of its customers.

In pursuance of the agreement, Bestway transferred to Gamair through the Ghana Commercial Bank, $800,000 representing various sums paid by the customers for the provision of the services.

But after receiving the money Steed reneged on the agreement with his Ghanaian counterparts as a result of which, the 250 spectators could not travel to the USA for the World Cup and tried as they did to retrieve the monies they paid for the trip they did not succeed.

When Bestway attempted to recover the amount from Gamair, Steed started to play hide and seek.

This prompted Bestway to report the case to the New York police who busted the chief executive and charged him with the offence of grand larceny (stealing).

By the court?s order, a parcel of land in Delaware County of New York, (approximately 10 acres), which has a two-storey farm house and a barn on it, forming part of the assets of Gamair are to be confiscated for the benefit of Bestway.

A source at the Registrar Generals Department told the paper that meanwhile the property, valued at $25,000 would have to be disposed of and the proceeds of sale transferred into the liquidation fund established by the Official Liquidator.

The source said unfortunately the District Attorney?s office in the County of New York has intimated its inability to carry out the sale for a number of valid reasons.

The source noted that, however, the department was prepared to assist in the pursuance of the rights of Bestway in the property, with any information about the various procedures that would be required for the disposition of the property to enable the net income there from to be added to the department?s assets for distribution to claimants.

It also disclosed that the official liquidator on receipt of an amount of $111,580.17 opened a liquidation fund at the foreign operations branch of Ghana Commercial Bank in accordance with the provisions of Act 180, from which various payments have been made to claimants.

Some office furniture and machines belonging to Bestway were valued and auctioned by Dabbey Mart which yielded about ?53 million.

The sources stressed that the District Attorney of the County of New York forwarded to Akuffo Addo & Co, a cheque for $23,100 representing money realized from the sale of Steeds? assets which was further transferred to the official liquidator and immediately disbursed to claimants.

The paper learnt that the official liquidator could not make any more funds available to be distributed to claimants because the company did not have any further property that could be disposed of to liquidate a substantial portion of its debt.