William Ato Essien<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nFounder of the failed Capital Bank, William Ato Essien has ben accused by the State Attorney of failing to pay GHS20million, which is the first installment\u00a0of the GH\u00a290 million restitution deal.<\/b><\/p>\n
To that end, the State Attorney wants him imprisoned after filing processes to that effect at the High Court.<\/p>\n
He was supposed to pay GH\u00a220 million by April 28 however, he has failed to do so, per the State Attorney\u2019s account in the application to the court.<\/p>\n
Background<\/strong><\/p>\nMr Ato Essien earlier pleaded guilty to 16 counts of charges including stealing and money laundering.<\/p>\n
In court on Tuesday, December 13, 2022 a Deputy Attorney-General Alfred Tuah-Yeboah explained how the state arrived at the agreement with the accused\u2019s defense counsels.<\/p>\n
Citing how Ato Essien caused financial loss, Tuah-Yeboah noted that Section 35 of the Court\u2019s Act was applicable.<\/p>\n
\u201cCapital Bank was granted liquidity support in the sum of GH\u00a2620 million by the state through BoG. Out of this amount, the first accused person and the other two accused persons have been charged with offenses which cover a total sum of GH\u00a2192.5 million. The first question therefore is if the money isn\u2019t paid back to the state has the state not been saddled with financial loss. The answer is positive.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo. As we speak now, the license of Capital Bank has been revoked by the Bank of Ghana pursuant to Section 133 of the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, Act 930. Upon this revocation, the access and liability of Capital Bank were taken over by the Ghana Commercial Bank. GCB is a state bank, therefore properly speaking the current owner of the assets of Capital Bank is the GCB (a state bank). Again the current institution that is now saddled with the responsibility to pay the liability is the GCB. It is therefore our contention that if the GH\u00a2192.5 million isn\u2019t paid, GCB will have to pay and by extension there is an economic loss to the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree. Pursuant to the revocation of the licenses of the various banks by BoG, the state had to step in to pay the depositors of these banks including Capital Bank. The state had to pay in excess of GH\u00a225 billion to depositors. There is therefore no doubt that the GH\u00a2192.5 million forms part of the GH\u00a225 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn conclusion, it is our firm position that Section 2 or Article 35 is applicable,\u201d Mr Tuah-Yeboah told the court.<\/p>\n
In a further breakdown, the Deputy A-G narrated how investigations brought to bear an amount of GH\u00a264 million, which was used by another company, Capital African Group, to acquire shares in Capital Bank. He noted that the amount was paid through an Ecobank account.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe realized that this amount came out of the GH\u00a2192.5 million. The shares of acquisition was reversed and the money retained by Capital Bank.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, during investigation, it came out that another amount totalling GH\u00a225 million was used to acquire shares in Capital Bank. This GH\u00a235 million was realized to be part of the GH\u00a2192.5 million, therefore the share acquisition was reversed and the money was retained by Capital Bank. The total amount from these two transactions is GH\u00a2100 million. Therefore, the outstanding amount out of the GH\u00a2192.5 million stands at GH\u00a292 million.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Tuah-Yeboah stated that the first accused person, Ato Essien, refunded GH\u00a2 1.3 million to the\u00a0Economic and Organised Crime Office\u00a0(EOCO), thereby further reducing the outstanding amount to GH\u00a290.7 million.<\/p>\n
Counsel for Capital Bank\u2019s CEO Thaddeus Sory explained to the court that after extensive discussions with the state, there was an agreement to have the accused repay monies.<\/p>\n
He cited a statement by a former Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, in 2003, urging for a more modern approach to cases which placed focus on recoveries rather than prosecutions.<\/p>\n
Per the terms of the agreement, Mr Ato Essien is to pay back GH\u00a290 million in total: an initial GH\u00a230 million and GH\u00a260 million in 3 installment to the state.<\/p>\n
Responding to the terms, presiding judge Eric Kyei Baffour noted, \u201cHaving listened to the Deputy AG that with the revocation of the license of Capital Bank and that the state has made huge payments to depositors and the monies are huge loss to the state, I am prepared to accept the agreement under Section 35.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first accused indicates that he is unable to increase the total amount to be paid as reparation and restitution. Further rejection of the agreement may overreach the first accused pursuant to the agreement reached. I will therefore accept the agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first accused broke down in tears as the court began to take his pleas to the charges leveled against him.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
William Ato Essien Founder of the failed Capital Bank, William Ato Essien has ben accused by the State Attorney of failing to pay GHS20million, which is the first installment\u00a0of the GH\u00a290 million restitution deal. To that end, the State Attorney wants him imprisoned after filing processes to that effect at the High Court. He was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/1683064594_154_William-Ato-Essien-Capital-Bank.jpg\" "\\"William")