Shareholders of defunct First Fund, then operated by First Banc Financial Services, have issued a two-week ultimatum to their new fund managers, TTL Capital, to pay their locked-up funds or face their wrath.

Addressing the media at a press briefing, the shareholders called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to as a matter of urgency intervene and retrieve their funds.

According to the Spokesperson, Michael Kwablah, a total of GH170 million of about 24,000 investors have been locked up for the past two years.

“Basically, we are here to draw the attention of the board of First Fund that we need our monies that have been locked up for two years. We are giving them a two week ultimatum to operationalize the fund and let us have our money. We’re not even looking for 100%, we just need 60% of our money, then they can give us a clear roadmap as to when the rest of the 40% will be paid.”

He added “because the monies are sitting in the bank, every day, it is accruing interest and TTL Capital is charging 0.5% of that interest. So the more the money sits at the bank, it is our loss and their gain,” he stated.

In a petition signed by shareholders of the defunct First Fund financial services to SEC, the investors asked the commission to help them retrieve their locked up funds by “dissolving the board of First Fund and reconstitute an interim board to steer the affairs of the board”.

This compel TTL Capital to operationalize the Fund and to start redemption to shareholders with a minimum of 60% of shareholders fund.

“To appoint new fund managers capable of running the affairs of the Fund, who will have no dealings, nor owe any allegiances to any member of the Board whatsoever,” the petition stated.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s updated liquidation orders, it indicated that “the courts have granted 37 liquidation orders to the Official Liquidator (The Registrar-General) as of the 31^st March 2021, out of the forty-seven 47 Fund Management Companies with claims from investors after the revocation.

Virtual Creditor and Class meetings have also been held by the Official Liquidator for clients of 34 of these companies.

Companies with Liquidation Orders that are yet to have Creditors & Class Meetings are: Firstbanc Financial Services, Procap Finance Company, Strategic Hedge Capital Limited” the website of the Commission stated.