Capital Bank boss in fresh scandal

The man, whose alleged dubious deal caused the collapse of Capital Bank, is purportedly in a fresh financial scandal, robbing Ghanaians of their money running into several millions of Ghana cedis.

William Ato Essien and his alleged cronies, according to DAILY GUIDE’s sources, had virtually depleted the funds in a financial institution, making their customers stranded.

The emerging scandal makes the case of DKM microfinance a child’s play.

The depositors’ fund in the finance house has allegedly been looted by the directors who were said to have been appointed by Ato Essien, including Isaac Oheneba Osei Akoto, who was also cited in the Capital Bank scandal.

Part of the money allegedly found its way into other phony businesses purportedly set up by Ato Essien, including an insurance company.

Attempts to speak to the man at the centre of the unfolding scandal were not successful.

Interestingly, while the scandal was brewing, the Banking Supervision Division staff of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) looked on as if the scandal was plotted.

Ato Essien and other directors of defunct Capital Bank are under investigation by the BoG for corporate governance and other related charges, including siphoning of depositors’ funds.

An internal report of a probe into how Third Party Funds (TPFs) were used by the Capital Bank shareholders has revealed massive individual and corporate liabilities running into millions of Ghana cedis.

The report, which also looked at the segregation of liabilities of persons and/or individuals of the company, showed that even in 2014, the entire shareholders’ liabilities were hovering around GH¢56,788,289.00.

Capital Bank and UT Bank were recently taken over by GCB Bank under the BoG directive owing to insolvency.

According to the report, William Ato Essien, who controlled majority of the shares (52 %) of the bank, was sitting on a liability of GH¢29,529,910.28, while Dr Stephen Enchill with 11% shares had GH¢6,246,711.79 liability.

Isaac Osah Thompson-Mensah, Kinsley Attah Ghansah and Isaac Oheneba Osei Akoto, who all had 5% each of the shares, had liability of GH¢2,839,414.45 each.