Former Capital Bank CEO Ato Essien jailed 15 years

Former Chief Executive Officer of defunct Capital Bank, William Ato Essien, has been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour.

His sentence comes after he failed to pay GH¢90 million to the state as directed by the court.

Per the High Court's judgment, he was supposed to have paid GH¢20 million of the GH¢60 million restitution by April 28, 2023, and pay the rest by the end of December 2023.

The Court, presided over by Justice Kyei Baffour, a Court of Appeal Judge sitting as an additional High Court Judge accepted the terms of settlement filed by the Attorney-General and Ato Essien.

It would be recalled that the former CEO of Capital Bank was convicted on his own plea after striking a deal with the state under section 35 of the Courts Act.

Section 35 of the Courts Act, 1993 (Act 459), allows an accused person to plead guilty and pay restitution to the state in cases in which there has been a financial loss to the state.

The move was for him [Ato Essien] to avoid a custodial sentence.

However, he failed to honour his due.

Essien was convicted of stealing over GH¢90 million of Bank of Ghana’s liquidity support to the then Capital Bank.

Background

Ato Essien was on trial with the Managing Director of the defunct bank, Fitzgerald Odonkor, and the MD of MC Management Services, a company said to be owned by Essien, Tettey Nettey.

The prosecution accused the three persons of engaging in various illegal acts that led to the dissipation of a chunk of the GH¢620 million in liquidity support given to the Capital Bank by the Bank of Ghana between June 2015 and November 2016.

The accused persons pleaded not guilty to various counts of theft, abetment to stealing, conspiracy to steal, and money laundering.

They maintained their innocence all throughout the trial with Ato Essien maintaining at all material moments that he had board approval for all the actions he took.



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