Crime: Kwaku Ananse? No…..John Ackah Blay Miezah is the ‘Biggest’ African Hustler of all Times……

Americans have a saying that there is a sucker born everyday. The statement speaks to the gullibility of some people to fall for schemes that are patently fraudulent, and should be avoided the same way one would avoid the plague. There is an ongoing attempt to scam the government and people of Ghana unless sensible people rise up to say no to con-men peddling falsehoods and lies. The damage will be done not only in terms of huge monetary loss, but our national prestige and international credibility will forever be tarnished, if Ghana were to fall for a scam currently being sold by remnants of John Ackah Blay Miezah’s hustlers. Of late, a group calling itself Friends of Oman Ghana Trust Fund (FOGTF) has embarked on a media blitz aimed at gaining the support of the government and people of Ghana to what is essentially a scam akin to what the villain in our folklore, Kwaku Ananse would endeavour to visit on his family. One cannot begin to understand this fraudulent scheme without reference to the name and fraudulent practices of the ‘master con-man’ Blay-Miezah. Indeed, FOGTF claims to be continuing the efforts ‘made’ by Blay-Miezah to gain access to some so-called money. The mere mention of Blay-Miezah should have rang bells, and alerted officials and the public to the scam, but so far, like Blay-Miezah, the perpetrators are doing their job in a fashion that sounds credible to the gullible. According to Blay-Miezah, Ghana’s first president Dr. Kwame Nkrumah named him the sole beneficiary of millions of dollars that Nkrumah had stashed in banks in Switzerland under a scheme described by Blay-Miezah as the Oman Ghana Trust Fund (OGTF). After Nkrumah’s death in 1972, Blay-Miezah managed to sell his OGTF story to investors in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Blay-Miezah had lived in the city, and had spent time in a state prison for writing bad cheques, and failing to settle a huge bill at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia.After the con game was brought to the attention of authorities, Time magazine (April 21, 1986 edition), did a story on investors who had contributed at least $18 million (and possibly $100 million) to the scheme, and quotes Robert Ellis extensively on the modalities of the criminal enterprise. Robert Ellis had posted bond for Blay-Miezah in a previous criminal case in Philadelphia, and in return Blay-Miezah appointed Ellis, his American ‘agent’. The main role for Ellis was to solicit American investors whose money would then be used to facilitate retrieval of alleged millions of dollars bequeathed to Blay-Miezah under the OGTF by the late president Nkrumah of Ghana. …….Please read the rest at: www.bankruptbanker.blogspot.com


Title: Out of Africa: Stung by a Ghanaian smoothy
By: Jacob V. Lamar Jr;Joseph N. Boyce/New York Dated: 21st April 1986

Meet John Ackah Blay-Miezah, native of Ghana, man of the world, a portly, elegant, globe-trotting charmer who seems to awe those who encounter him. "A very intelligent, cultured man," gushed one American admirer. "He knows every opera and can recognize a symphony from just a couple of notes. He is a nationally ranked chess player. He speaks nine languages." He is also, say authorities, a world-class swindler.
Philadelphia's newly elected district attorney, Ronald Castille, asserts that since 1972, Blay-Miezah and his American "agent," Robert Ellis, have swindled at least $18 million from about 300 investors in the Philadelphia area for a nonexistent Ghanaian trust fund. Says Castille: "It's the biggest scam in the history of Philadelphia." Adds Assistant D.A. William Wolf: "What you had were some of the most successful and intelligent men and women in Philadelphia who bought a treasure map from con men." Some sources say that Philadelphians were not the only suckers: the bogus trust may have taken in as much as $100 million from a nationwide network of investors.
As the D.A. tells it, Blay-Miezah passed himself off as the sole beneficiary of a trust set up by deposed Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah, who died in Rumania in 1972. Gullible investors were told that the Oman Ghana Trust Fund, to be used for economic development in Ghana, had shadowy origins and was funded with billions of dollars in banks in Switzerland and Liechtenstein; the story was backed up with an account number and a vaguely worded letter from the Union Bank of Switzerland.
There was one, er, problem, Blay-Miezah told his investors. To gain access to the money, he had to fulfill a number of complicated conditions that included presenting a specially numbered diplomatic passport to the banks and cutting deals with certain tribal chiefs. Outside funds were necessary to pay expenses incurred as Blay-Miezah wheeled and dealed to get to the mother lode.
Most of the Philadelphia-area investors were allegedly lured into the scheme by Blay-Miezah's partner Ellis, whom Castille describes as "a good talker, a hustler." They were assured of a return of as much as 50 to 1 on their investments. Attorney Barry Ginsberg and a group of friends ended up dumping a total of $1.5 million into the trust, and according to investigators, an elderly widow invested $70,000, which amounted to her life savings. Most investors did, however, realize that they were getting into a rather risky venture. "Don't feel sorry for these people," says Richard Butera, a businessman who first dropped money in the Oman Ghana Trust Fund in 1972. "They knew what they were doing."
While Ellis was seeking out investors, Blay-Miezah was living overseas, having fled the U.S. in 1974 after he was charged with trying to cash $250,000 worth of stolen cashier's checks. But the Ghanaian was always willing to greet his American benefactors at the posh offices or hotel suites he had set up with their money in London, Amsterdam and Accra. "I can't live like a pauper," he told one investor. "I have to impress my people." Read the rest at: www.time.com