Top-of-the- class logistics and trading company, M&C Logistics and Trading, one of the companies of internationally established M&C Group Global, has mounted a spirited defence of the image of its Chairman, Michael Barlette-Vanderpuye, saying that he is the most honest businessman anyone in the gold trading industry could do business with.
In a press release in response to New Crusading GUIDE publication of last Monday, about a business the company did with one of its foreign partners, M&C, with voluminous documents to support, assured its cherished clients and the general public “that as an astute businessman, he is at all times made himself available to the Ghana Police who know his whereabouts and he is not a fugitive and he has answered every single call to his phone and he is ready and prepared to meet anybody at any fora.”
Read excerpts of the unedited response from M&C:
M&C would like to categorically state here without evasion, equivocation and mental distress whatsoever that the company does not have gold suppliers that it purports to pick gold from for and on behalf of its prospective clients.
It is also instructive at this juncture to note that, as a licensed gold Exporter M & C allows Third Party Transactions of exporting clients’ gold for and on their behalf to their destination of choice. Here, M& C undertakes and performs all the necessary services required by law and it takes all the necessary steps to verify and also ascertain the origin and authenticity of the gold as required by law before its exports same for its clients.
The so called “Complainant” Company as captured in the said publication the subject of this press release in September 2021 entered into an agreement with MNCSB Trading DMCC under M&C Group in Dubai, UAE for the following services to be rendered for it:
- Transportation of Precious Minerals (Gold)
- Assay
- Export/Import of Precious Minerals
The so-called “Complainant” company competently represented by its authorized chairman registered and set up an Export/Import Service Account with M&C for M&C to undertake the services adumbrated in the preceding paragraph for and on its behalf and this was to operate solely under debit or credit instructions received only from the designated or authorized Signatory on the Export/Import Service Account it has opened with M&C.
The so-called “complainant” in furtherance of its duties later signed and delivered to M&C Logistics and Trading the said Export Service Agreement in Accra at the office of M&C Group which mandated M &C to do the following for and its behalf namely:
- Open an Account with M&C Logistics and Trading
- Indicate the Service request from M&C Logistics and Trading as per the Account Opening Form
- Maintain a minimum of Fifteen Thousand United States Dollars ($15,000.00) at all times with M&C
- Notify M&C via email of all intended services within Twenty-Four (24) hours prior to execution.
- Transfer funds in time on any invoice raised for service to be rendered timely
- Furnish M&C Logistics and Trading with all contracts signed with Third Parties with respect to Precious Minerals Export for perusal
- Furnish M&C Logistics and Trading with ‘Release to Exporter Note’ signed and sealed by the seller
- M&C Logistics and Trading to prepare all documentation as required by law to export accordingly all consignments to the destination of the complainant within Forty-Eight (48) hours after the request is made
- M&C Logistics Group to provide all Export documents for goods retrieval to the complainant before the flight departs
- All goods deposited and received at M&C’s vault to be covered by insurance.
Though the complainant company was preview to the Gold Supply procedures of M&C Logistics and Trading which is strictly Pre-finance and stated on its corporate website and in the contract, The complainant decided to engage its own suppliers of Gold and opted to engage M&C Logistics and Trading only for secured pick up, Assay and Export services.
On a various date between the September 13, 2021 to November 2021, the Complainant represented by their chairman issued several requests via email for pickup of gold from their designated supplier(s), secured transportation and ascertaining gold through assay to which he was issued invoices for. This the chairman received, signed off and issue debit instructions to this effect.
The Chairman of the Complainant company visited Ghana on various occasions to witness and sign off on the assay report of these services that were rendered on his behalf. On only one occasion where he was not physically present to witness the performance of this service, he designated a representative from his third-party seller to be a witness to all proceedings which was also confirmed and signed off on.
We therefore find it quite outrageous and disingenuous that where the movement of gold was carried out for and on behalf of this complainant in the impeded and full glare of no mean a person than the indefatigable Chairman of the Complainant Company who did not have any qualms and or questions of the fraud, deceit and or charade whatsoever and that the said chairman of complainant company was duly satisfied with the efficiency and professionalism which M&C displayed in carrying out its mandate and the chairman of complainant company without any reservation or his influence been induced by anyone independently accented to the professional services rendered by M&C and the chairman of complainant company went ahead to append his signature by signing off on the assay reports produced as his positive indication of the genuineness of the gold brought in by his own independent third-party sellers to M&C.
It, therefore, befuddles the imagination of the staff and Management of M&C that this same Chairman will have the effrontery, or temerity to desperately seek to purport later to raise issues as to the conduct of the staff and especially the competence, integrity, business modus operandi of M&C and or that of Chairman M&C which the said publication seeks egregiously to portray as a willfully perjured businessman devoid of any scruples and also as an “international con artist” and a “fugitive” without any shred or modicum of evidence or lawful and or legal justification whatsoever but rather based on an allegation which can just be described as a desperate attempt to implicate Michael Bartlett-Vanderpuye in an issue has no role in.
A reasonable person will legitimately ask,” why after all these lifting/transport and assay reports yet no export made by M& C to the complainant company? The complainant company signed a Sale and Purchase agreement worth 15,000,000 USD with MNCSB Trading DMCC in Dubai and sent a swift copy for a deposit of $9,037,200 via email. MNCSB as part of its due diligence sent the same Contract and swift wire document to Emirates Islamic Bank for confirmation and subsequent credit. The Complainant subsequently sent the same swift copy to the various companies he had signed Agreements with as proof of availability of funds for the payment of Gold. After several follow-ups with Emirates Islamic Bank, the swift copy issued from the complainant turned out to be a SCAM as the Bank confirmed it was to be fraudulently done to scam the uninitiated and that it was fake.
The Group Chairman of M&C armed with the said information that the said swift was fake confronted the complainant who made a solemn admission was fake and the complainant’s chairman further stated that the said swift was only to prove to his third-party contractors that there were funds to pay for the gold. Thus, there was no money to pay the sellers of the Gold (Au) to export on behalf of the Complainant and the seller took their gold away without any liability on M&C and or its Group Chairman but in the face of all this irrefragable evidence of attempted fraud on its third party suppliers yet this same chairman of complainant company has concocted this story to your good self and without any verification from us you decided to print a one-sided story which has caused irreparable damage to the image of MICHAEL BARLETTE-VANDERPUYE both locally and internationally without any lawful justification at all.
It is also instructive to inform you again that per the terms and contains enshrined in the Export Agreement complainant entered with M&C, M&C Logistics and Trading is NOT privy to the 3rd Party Agreements which the complainant company is purported to have entered with its own independent suppliers and neither has the suppliers furnished M &C with any Release to Export Note to enable M&C to export the product to the complainant which M& C has allegedly failed so to do.
It is worthy to note that in November 2021 complainant contracted M&C Logistics and Trading to secure Two (2) kg of Gold for Export, M&C without any hindrance or hitch exported the Gold to the complainant in Dubai on two occasions all in November 2021 after the said gold was made available to M&C by the complainant’s own independent suppliers. It must also be noted that these were pre-financed.
M&C Logistics and Trading has vast experience in the Gold Business where it is mostly pre-financed. M&C Logistics and Trading is yet to come across a seller giving out about 100kg, 200kg ,250kg or any quantity of Gold to a buyer without being paid for. M&C reiterates that M&C does not introduce our competitors to our clients to supply them gold when we do same. We have never purported to have gold anywhere that requires our clients to pay for us to go and pick up at all.
On the issue of gaining the confidence of his clients, it is trite knowledge that because of our impeccable track record in the gold industry as a high liable exporter/importer of gold to our various clienteles scattered over the globe, most of our prospective clients are those referred to us by our former or existing clients who recommend M& C to any prospective client and therefore our records speaks volumes of our integrity and professionalism in the gold industry and therefore M&C does not engage in name dropping to entice and or induced anybody before we offer you our sterling services. All transactions, communication trails and proof of service are readily available to ascertain which supports our steady growth as a company.
It is an outright falsehood therefore for you to insinuate that MICHAEL LESLIE BARLETTE VANDERPUYE is a fugitive since when this frivolous report was made by the complainant to the Police, and when he was invited by the Police, he readily and law abidingly in the company of our lawyers made himself available for questioning by the same Police and after taking is statement was released on the same day and he was informed by the police that they will be contacting him again when necessary and this is information is available with the Police but you spectacularly neglected, failed and or refused to ascertain these facts from the Police to corroborate your story we believe the ethos of your profession requires you so to do. M&C has furnished the Ghana Police with every single document on this transaction which clearly exonerates us of any wrongdoing not to talk criminality which by the stroke of your pen you have done by calling the Group Chairman; “an international con man” who is dodging the police, a statement which is without justification whatsoever.
When the Police even claimed they could not find the e-mail instructions as to the transportation or lifting of the Gold from various points, M&C again furnished them with fresh copies from our records and M&C did not only furnish the Police with documentary evidence but also we supplied them with the particulars of the van for the lifting of the Gold but also the whole registration documents of the vehicle, as well as the contact numbers of the contact persons.
How can one perform an assay in the presence of no ordinary person but the chairman of the complainant who appended his signature as having witnessed the assay if there was no gold and it was all a ‘charade’?
The President of the M&C Logistics Group assures its cherished clients, Ghanaians and the general public that as an astute businessman, he is at all times made himself available to the Ghana Police who know his whereabouts and he is not a fugitive and he has answered every single call to his phone and he is ready and prepared to meet anybody at any fora.
Stay tune as the New Crusading GUIDE goes into the wild to probe the entire transaction.
