GIA ? ANOTHER NPP SCAM DEAL?

May 10, Palaver -- From IFC (Aborted), to CNTCI I (Motion of Approval), to CNTCI II (Motion of Rescission), to United Rail International (Aborted), to United Rail Ghana (Fraudulent Consortium), to Trackbed (Aborted), to Trackbed Foundation (Sham Offshore Company), to Nationwide South Africa (A Con Job); now it is the turn of another likely NPP investment ?419? scam, the ?Ghana International Airline? (GIA), supposed to take over Ghana Airways, the state Airline deliberately run down by Dr. Richard ?Condom Free? Anane, the incompetent, out-of-depth, adulterous, lying, perjuring, Minister of Road Transport (formerly Roads and Transport, including Aviation).

We do indeed weep for Ghana Airways.

From 2001 till its dissolution, Ghana Airways did not present any better leeway for the nation, when out of greed, envy, waywardness or stupidity, or all four combined, NPP apparatchiks thought that their minions and acolytes were better suited to run the Airline as Managers than trained managerial staff.

Anane, A GIA Agent

Since Ghana Airways went kaput, thanks to in-fighting for the spoils of the Airline by NPP operatives, almost all its flight attendants, crew and pilots are finding it difficult to be employable. But who has caused the Ghana Airways mess?

None other than Dr. Richard ?Condom Free? Anane, gynaecologist-turned-?aviation expert? who is listed on the website of the World Transport Group (WTG), one of the so-called partners of the GIA Consortium, as the local agent of GIA with e-mail address Richard.anane@mrt.gov.gh.

Yet when former NDC Minister of Finance Kwame Peprah did a similar thing in relation to the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) set up to purchase the Gulfstream Presidential Jet, J. H. Mensah and his illiterate gang of 19th century economists with no idea of 21st century notions of financial engineering raised hell and charged ?corruption?.

Shady Characters

The people behind GIA, the USA ?strategic partner? to Ghana International appear to be all shady characters.

Ralph Atkin, the Chief Executive of GIA, tries to bask in Skywest Airlines? glory, but he was long gone from operation responsibility when Skywest started operating United?s feeder operation in California. Skywest has become the airline it is now after Ralph Atkin left.

Albert Vitale of Florida, listed as Vice Chief Executive of GIA, passes himself off as an ex-Pan Am pilot, but the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) only knows of issuing him a pilot?s license in 1993, and only for single-engine aircraft on flights over land. Since Pan Am went out of business in 1991, it is hard to reconcile the dates. Vitale is currently in some role with Chalk Airways in Florida (which operates Grumman seaplanes between Miami and Bahamas).

Then there is a Sean Mendis, most famous on pprune for defending his friend, Neil Robertson/Ceilidh/paedophile/airline CEO, even after Robertson was convicted.

Mendis? only experience in airline management is that his parents are ex-Air India cabin crew, although Mendis is not above claiming to Albert Vitale and others who frequent forums on airlines.net that his father was a management pilot on the 744 fleet.

Mendis currently passes himself off as an Aviation consultant in Canada/India, after getting deported from the USA due to visa violations.

A Tangled Web

These operatives behind GIA have, through a mangled, tangled, intricate web of interconnections and shenanigans, succeeded in thoroughly confusing Minister Dr. Anane, Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani, the technical Ghanaian Aviation experts with whom they have been dealing, and, most especially, President Kufuor himself. Or is it that they have been willing tools in whatever schemes have been going on to fleece this country of one of its patrimonies?

Let us try and make sense out of the information at the country?s disposal so far.

In the Press Releases by both the Ministry of Road Transport (MRT) and the World Transport Group (WTG) on 7th September 2004, Sentry Financial International Inc was indicated as a Consortium partner of GIA.

But later in the newly formed SPV GIA-USA, LLC, it is stated that it is owned by several companies including WTG, Inc, a St. George, Utah-based aviation consulting company, the President of which is J. Ralph Atkin, the founder of Skywest Airlines, INC; AND sentry Investments, LLC, a Salt Lake City, Utah-based investment company, which is an affiliate of Sentry Financial Corporation.

The Sentry Corporations

What happened to the original Consortium partner Sentry Financial International, Inc is a matter of conjecture.

The new Consortium partner, Sentry Investments, LLC is a Corporation, which is the manager and a member of Sentry Financial Corporation.

But the newly formed SPV, GIA-USA, LLC, which is owned by the Consortium which comprised of Sentry Investments, LLC and managed by Sentry Financial Capital Corporation and does not mention the initially named Consortium partner Sentry Financial International, Inc. Sentry Financial International, Inc is neither named as a principal nor a management entity either.

Confused? Well, do not be. Just continue reading.

Sentry Financial Capital Corporation is neither the same as Sentry Financial Corporation, nor Sentry Financial International, Inc. So why is Sentry Investments, LLC named instead of the Sentry Financial International, Inc?

A business article dated September 8, 2004, quotes ?Kirk Heaton, Sentry?s Executive Vice President, (the name behind every Sentry corporation as registered agent as well) ?World Transport Group will handle the operations aspects of this, and Sentry Financial is to raise the money to get the new airline off the ground?.

Which Sentry Corporation is he referring to ? Sentry Financial Capital Corporation, or Sentry Financial Corporation, or Sentry Financial International, Inc?

If it is Sentry Financial Corporation, they specialise in providing equipment financing to Fortune 2000, middle market and smaller established companies.

If it is Sentry Financial Capital Corporation, it recently renewed itself as of January 27, 2005, as a registered corporation to do business for the purpose of automotive equipment rental and leasing corporation.

If it is Sentry Financial International, Inc, it recently renewed itself on March 8, 2005, to do business as a non-classifiable establishment.

The Sentry Corporations metamorphose in amoebic fashion. Every time they push forward, they present a different company that has a similar ?Sentry? name. So far, the research of our USA collaborators has uncovered twelve registered ?Sentry? corporations under Mr. Kirk Heaton as registered agent:

(1) Sentry Capital Co, LLC;

(2) Sentry Capital Corporation of Utah;

(3) Sentry Development Corporation;

(4) Sentry Elite Investments, LLC;

(5) Sentry Financial Capital Corporation;

(6) Sentry Financial Corporation;

(7) Sentry Financial International, Inc;

(8) Sentry Investments, LLC;

(9) Sentry Lease Equity Pool 2000-1, LLC;

(10) Sentry Lease Investments, LLC;

(11) Sentry Mindquest, LLC;

(12) Sentry SPC-2, LLC.

The authorities in Ghana do not seem to know which ?Sentry? they are dealing with.

World Transport Group

World Transport Group (WTG), Inc, is also part of the Consortium partners. This Corporation is registered with principal owners J. Ralph Atkin and Gary Whipple. Their website http://www.worldtransportgroup.com however states the principals as only J. Ralph Atkin and Albert Vitale. So who is Gary Whipple?

There are two Gary Whipples in the state of Utah; this Gary Whipple and a Gary Whipple who works with Intermountain Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah.

By coincidence or by design, Dr. Richard Anane visited Intermountain Hospital, coordinated by the Harvest Africa Children?s Foundation back in April 2000. Are these Whipples related, perhaps father and son? Only Dr. Anane can tell.

The MRT/WTG Press Releases

Two separate Press Releases by the MRT and WTG dated 31st March 2005 and 7th September 2005 respectively on their respective websites http://www.mrt.gov.gh/pages/press-story.asp?pressid=4 and http://www.worldtransportgroup.com/news.htm respectively, announcing the GIA Consortium, contained almost exactly the same wording except for the following two very significant differences as folllows:

(i) In the WTG Press Release, there is a statement to the effect that the Consortium includes Ghanaian businessmen. This statement is missing from the MRT Press Release. Is it the case that there are some Ghanaian businessmen involved in the deal and the MRT does not want Ghanaians to know that fact, or is it that WTG wants to deceive the world that Ghanaian businessmen are involved in the deal?

The WTG Press Release names the Sentry company involved in the Consortium as the Sentry Financial International Inc, a company that appears to have been jettisoned in favour of Sentry Investments LLC, an affiliate of Sentry Financial Corporation.