The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday, November 8, 2019 revoked the operating license of Blackshield Capital Management (formerly Gold Coast Fund Management) and 52 other investment and fund management companies.
The revocation of the licences, according to the regulator, is to protect the integrity of the securities market and investors. At a stakeholder meeting Friday before the release of the list of the affected companies, the Director-General of the SEC, Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, said troubled securities firms that have still not been able to address issues raised about their operations over the years are among those affected by the action. The SEC said the affected companies failed to return client funds which remained locked up in, contravention of the investment rules, and some of the affected companies were already defunct at the time of the revocation.
“These firms failed to inform clients about the risk that they are taking. They also failed to notify the Commission about their dealings,” said the Director-General of the SEC, Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, at the stakeholders’ meeting.
The SEC boss also announced that the Registrar-General will be the Receiver for an entity that will be created for the firms whose licences have been revoked.
He said the Receiver will also scrutinise the payments of funds to investors.
The firms whose licences have been revoked controlled at least 56,000 investors with a combined asset of GHS1 billion, Mr Ogbarmey Tetteh revealed.
