By Ivy Benson
With the Fast Track Court (FTC) yet to go into a fraud case filed against an Accra-based legal firm, Bentsi-Enchill, Lesta and Ankomah, and some sixteen other local and foreign institutions and personalities for their actions in the affairs of Kasapa Telecom, the latter has tightened the noose on the legal firm.
In an amendment to a joint suit previously filed by Kasapa Telecom and [ads1]its parent company, Kludjeson International Limited (KIL), against the defendants, the plaintiffs have accused Bentsi-Enchill, Lesta and Ankomah, a private partnership legal firm, of some improprieties in the handling of the mobile telecommunications service provider.
Plaintiffs have intimated that in 2007, Bentsi-Enchill, Lesta and Ankomah authorised its subsidiary, Trustee Services Limited, to act under the direction of one of the defendants, to file annual returns of Kasapa Telecom at the Registrar-General’s Department for the years 2004 and 2005, which contained inaccurate information about the shareholding structure of the mobile telecommunications service provider.
Additionally, the plaintiffs noted that the law firm in 2008 connived with some of the defendants, and directed the filing of an amendment to the shareholding structure of Kasapa Telecom for 2005, and the annual returns of the company for 2006 and 2007, which contained inaccuracies.
According to the plaintiffs, Bensti-Enchill, Lesta and Ankomah directed its subsidiary, Trustee Services Limited, to fraudulently omit KIL as the sole shareholder of Kasapa Telecom, through the filing of the annual returns of the company without correct and factual records.
The plaintiffs have also indicated that the shares of KIL had been transferred to Micheal Awuah, an employee of the Kasapa Telecom, without authority, adding that the actions of the defendants were fraudulent and unlawful.
Other bigwigs mentioned in a joint law suit issued by KIL and Kasapa Telecom Limited, include the Standard Chartered Bank Limited, PriceWaterHouse Coopers, an Accountancy and Management Consultancy firm, and Sudan Telecommunications Limited of Sudan.
According to the KIL, business activities conducted on behalf of its subsidiary company, without the knowledge of its directors, were null and void.
The rest of the defendants are Robert Norris Palitz, who until recently was the Managing Director (MD) of Kasapa Company, Trustee Services Limited, a company issuing secretarial services, and its General Manager, Philip Dosoo, Margaret Abena Manful, a lawyer, Certwell Limited, an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands, Micheal Awuah, Kuwata Limited from the British Virgin Islands, EGH International Limited from the British Virgin Islands and Expresso Telecom Group Limited of the United Arab Emirates.
The rest of the defendants include Emad H. Ahmed and Emad Sukker, both of United Arab Emirates, Ihab Ibrahim Mohammed Osman of Sudan, and Lung Hien Ching, a Ghanaian resident.
In a-fifty-point claim sought by the plaintiffs, KIL and its subsidiary company, Kasapa Telecom Limited, want a declaration of the court that the former had never transferred any of its shares in the latter to the mobile telecommunication company and Mr. Micheal Awuah, the 6th defendant, as recorded on the company’s file officially kept at the Registrar General’s Department.
The plaintiffs are further demanding a declaration of the court that the Annual Returns for 2005, filed by Trustee Services Limited, as well as the amendment to the shareholding structure of the Annual Returns of 2005 of the mobile telecommunications company, were acts of fraud, and therefore null and void.
Moreso, the plaintiffs are seeking a declaration from the court that the Annual Returns for 2006 and 2007 of the mobile telecommunications service provider, filed by Margaret Abena Manful, 4th defendant, under the direction of Robert Norris Palitz, 1st defendant, was an act of fraud, and therefore null and void.
The plaintiffs are therefore demanding an order of the court, directed at the Registrar General’s Department, to expunge from its records the Annual Returns for 2005, 2006 and 2007, as filed by Trustee Services Limited and Margaret Abena Manful, under the direction of Mr. Palitz.
Additionally, the plaintiffs are seeking a court declaration that Certwell Limited, Micheal Awuah, Kuwata Limited, EGH International Limited, Expresso Telecom Group Limited and Sudan Telecommunications Limited, are not direct or indirect shareholders of Kasapa Telecom Limited, while Emad H. Ahmed, Emad Sukker, Ihab Ibrahim Mohammed Osman and Lung Hien Ching, are not, and have never been directors or alternate directors of the mobile telecommunications service provider.
The plaintiffs are therefore seeking, among others, a restraining order against each of the defendants and their agents, apart from Trustee Services Limited and Philip Dosoo, from holding themselves in various capacities as directors, shareholders, officers, and offering and receiving banking services to the telecommunications company.
The plaintiffs pointed out that in 2007, without giving authority to Mr. Palitz, the latter directed Trustee Services Limited to make Kasapa Telecom’s Annual Returns filings at the Registrar General’s Department, which was fraudulent.
According to them, the information received by the Registrar General’s Department for the year 2006 up to February 28, 2008, and Annual Returns for 2007 up to April 28, 2008, contained factual inaccuracies, but was erroneously accepted by the Registrar General’s Department.
In the circumstance, the plaintiffs noted that Trustee Services Limited and Margaret Abena Manful acted under the direction of Mr. Palitz, who had no lawful authority from the plaintiffs to act in that capacity, and therefore the company’s Annual Returns filed by the entities and received by the Registrar General’s Department was erroneous and constituted fraud.
According to the plaintiff, Trustee Services Limited, under the direction of Mr. Palitz, fraudulently omitted KIL as the sole shareholder of the mobile telecommunications service provider, and further caused Margaret Abena Manful to fraudulently amend the shareholding structure of the company, by naming Mr. Micheal Awuah as a shareholder, when the plaintiff had not transferred, offered, or sold any shares to him.
The plaintiffs asserted that it was fraudulent on the part of Magaret Abena Manful and Mr. Palitz to indicate at the Registrar General’s Department that the KIL, on January 18, 2005, transferred 3,000,000 of its shares in Kasapa to Kasapa, when no such transfer had taken place, adding that the two personalities further filed at the department, that on January 18, 2005, the KIL transferred 1,000,000 of its shares to Mr. Micheal Awuah, when no such transfer was made.
The plaintiffs indicated that the two separate transactions undertaken by Margaret Abena Manful and Mr. Palitz were fraudulently canceled by a special resolution dated January 27, 2005, when no such transfer was made to warrant a resolution for its cancellation.
It was the contention of the plaintiffs that Margaret Abena Manful was not the company Secretary of Kasapa Telecom Limited, as purported by Mr. Palitz, per the company’s file at the Registrar General’s Department, adding that the PriceWaterHouse Cooper’s certified financial statement of the mobile telecommunications company, did not state the true financial position of the company.
The plaintiffs further noted that Mr. Palitz fraudulently caused Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Limited to grant him access to the company’s current account, fixed deposit account, and other facilities, without lawful authority from Kasapa Telecom Limited.
The plaintiffs say the KIL remains the sole shareholder of Kasapa Telecom Limited, as it had not transferred any share to any personality, or entity currently holding themselves as directors and shareholders of Kasapa Telecommunications Limited, adding that the appointment of Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa and Anomah as external solicitors of Kasapa Telecom Limited by Mr. Palitz, was unlawful, as the plaintiffs had not authorised any such direction.
