Renowned music producer and resident judge of the music talent hunt show “TV3 Mentor”, Mark Okraku Mantey, is waging a strong legal battle with the managing editor of entertainment newspaper ‘New Fylla’, over an alleged embezzlement story the newspaper published.

The story, headlined “Mark Okraku Mantey Embezzles Musicians Funds”, on the front page of the newspaper, accused Mark of embezzling a total amount of GH¢240,000 which was supposed to be royalties for audio-visual right owners of Ghana Association of Phonographic Industry(GAPI), which Mark is currently representing on a COSGA board, set by the Attorney General.

This was published about three weeks ago when Mark was in South Africa during the world cup, as a member a Ghanaian music delegation sent to South Africa to promote Ghanaian music. Okraku Mantey returned last week and he has given an official reaction to the story, during an exclusive interview on Peace FM’s “Entertainment Review” programme.

He said, there is not a single truth in the story; the newspaper didn’t do any investigation and they decided to publish it just like that. “When I read the story, I couldn’t get the head or the tail of the story”.

He recalled that a reporter called him while he was in South Africa, to ask him about an amount of GH¢5,000 and he explained to the reporter, that regarding the GH¢5,000, he only fronted as the representative for COSGA to supplement a larger amount of money which was with K.K. Kabobo and other members to distribute as royalties in Kumasi. This implied that he has never personally, processed any amount of money meant for royalties.

“Anybody who knows the COSGA system and how money is disbursed will laugh at this story”. Mark believes some people who have no idea of how things are done at COSGA, are behind it and they have made the editor a victim to perpetrate their selfish interest.

“I will sue the editor in court for her to tell the court where she saw me embezzling any money, and show the court evidence that proves that. A lot of journalists write false stories about people; they threaten to send them to court but nothing happens and they go scot free. I am going to go all out to make sure the editor pays for being unprofessional”, Mark emphasized.