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Some frustrated customers on the premises of the company.

Court orders DKM Finance to refund deposits

The Sunyani Magistrate’s Court yesterday ordered DKM Diamond Micro Finance Company Limited to submit its schedule to refund deposits made by its numerous customers to the court on Friday, November 13, 2015.

The court also ordered the embattled micro-finance company to submit copies of its statement of accounts and where such accounts have been deposited to it.

The company is facing a charge of defrauding by false pretence brought before the court by a customer, Mr Michael Nii Washington.

Besides this case, more than 100 other customers have also dragged the company before the same court on a similar charge involving over GH¢880,000.00 investments, which the company has not been able to refund.

Bail
Last week, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Martin Delle, appeared before the court and was granted bail in the sum of GH¢500,000.00 with two sureties to be justified.

In addition, he was ordered to hand over his passport to the registry of the court.

Although Delle was not in court yesterday due to health reasons, two directors of the company, Mr Richard Zawi and Ivan Gyetuo, were present.

They were, however, granted bail in the sum of GH¢500,000.00 each with two sureties to be justified and to reappear on November 13, 2015.

Facts
On Wednesday, October 20, Nii Washington appeared before the court, led by his counsel, Mr Asare Atuah, with a complaint that he invested GH¢18,000 with the company on April 4, 2015 and was expecting the return of the money together with the agreed interest.

He stated that although his investment had matured, the company flatly refused to return his money to him despite several demands.

Nii Washington explained that after informing his counsel, he was advised to make a search at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) to ascertain the assets of the company with particular reference to a Toyota pickup with registration number GT 7871-15.

Before going to the DVLA office in Sunyani, he sighted the said vehicle with the company’s emblem boldly embossed on its doors but by the time he received the results of the search, the emblem of the company had been peeled off the vehicle even though the search revealed that the vehicle was registered in the name of Delle.

According to the complainant, the attempt by Delle to conceal the ownership of the said vehicle and the fact that the company owed a number of people who had invested various sums of money with it, which had not been returned to them, meant that the company was out to defraud its customers by disposing of its assets in order to evade the payment of its liabilities to its customers.

Agitation
Customers of the micro-finance company in the Brong Ahafo Region have been agitating for the refund of their investments after the Bank of Ghana lifted the moratorium on the operation of the company.

The failure of the company to abide by its announcement to start paying the customers beginning Wednesday last week, resulted in chaos on the premises of the company.

A large number of the company’s customers who trooped to its premises held staff and patients of the adjoining Rabito Clinic hostage, notwithstanding the heavy police and military presence to ensure peace and order.

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