German Widow Appeals to Ghana's Special Prosecutor for €248,000 Fraud Recovery

A 69-year-old German widow, Waltraud Wiesent, has formally appealed to Ghana's Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, to intervene in her case to recover €248,000 lost in a fraudulent gold transaction.

Wiesent was defrauded by two Nigerians, Mark Latif Adijum and Benjamin Taofeek Oluwashola, who were convicted by an Accra Circuit Court in 2015. The court ordered them to refund the money obtained through false pretenses of supplying gold. Despite the conviction and sentencing, Adijum to eight years imprisonment and Oluwashola to a fine, Wiesent has not recovered any of her funds.

Adijum's conviction was upheld on appeal, though he had denied the charges, claiming to be an uneducated farmer. The prosecution detailed how Adijum, posing as "Chris Walters," convinced Wiesent, a German technical engineer, to send money for gold purchases. The transactions involved transfers via MoneyGram and bank accounts.

Now, Wiesent is seeking the Special Prosecutor's assistance to trace and confiscate any properties or investments the convicts may hold in Ghana. She explained that her own financial situation has deteriorated, forcing her to sell her houses to settle loans she took out to send money to the Nigerians, whom she initially believed were legitimate gold dealers.

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My bankers had sold her houses to settle loans she contracted and sent to the Nigerians, whom she believed were genuine gold dealers in Ghana.