The management of Black Star, a business owned by Charles Adu Boahen, has denied allegations that it caused the state to lose $5 million through its investment in Asante Gold through Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF).

The company argues that it was never hired as an advisor for the aforementioned investment and advises the public to entirely disregard the widely reported assertions in the media.

Black Star said that the study is a part of a "orchestrated attempt to propagate false and misleading narratives about our company" in a press release released on Wednesday, August 24.

“This is patently false and deliberately misleading. Black Star was never engaged by MIIF, as falsely alleged, to advise it on any private placement to do with the shares of Asante Gold Corporation,” the statement stressed.

The management in the statement further explained, “Black Star treats all allegations against it seriously and will review all internal processes and take appropriate action where necessary to safeguard all its stakeholders.

“Lastly, the management of the Black Star would also like to reassure all stakeholders that they have always adhered to all regulatory requirements and have executed their mandate to the highest standards of practice in the financial markets.”

The Ministry of Finance has, on the other hand, dismissed a similar report that Databank and Black Star Brokerage linked to Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta and the Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, Charles Adu Boahen were handpicked by the Ministry and Bank of Ghana to act as Bond Market Specialists for government bond issuance, hence benefiting from those transactions.

In a statement, the Ministry explained that “the selection of the Primary Dealers [PDs] and Bond Market Specialists [BMSs] is an automatic process based on market performance and historical secondary market trading activity which is publicly available and cannot be manipulated by the Ministry of Finance [MoF] or the Bank of Ghana [BoG].

“Since 1996, the Ministry of Finance with the Bank of Ghana has developed and implemented various policies which affect the issuance and trading of Government of Ghana debt securities (Treasuries and Bonds). The ultimate objectives of these policies are to develop an efficient fixed income market, strengthen the capacity of local institutions and deepen financial intermediation."

It indicated, however, that Databank and Black Star Brokerage are two out of nine firms that have been selected by BoG/MoF as Bond Market Specialists and not Advisors to MoF, adding, “the other firms selected to be BMSs are Ecobank, Stanbic Bank, ABSA, Cal Bank, GCB Bank, Fidelity Bank, and IC Securities. As stated above, the selection of the firms was solely based on their historical performance on the Bond Market and no other consideration”.