William Ato Essien
AN ACCRA High Court has set the end of June 2022, to conclude the trial of founder and Chief Executive Officer of defunct Capital Bank, William Ato Essien, and two others who have been accused of stealing money from the collapsed bank.
To this effect, the court, presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, a Court of Appeal judge sitting as an additional High Court judge, has indicated that the proceedings may have to end between 2:30pm and 3pm each time.
“I intend to wrap up before the end of this month and we may have to leave here by 2:30 to 3pm. So that by two or three sittings, we will be done,” Justice Kyei Baffour told parties in the case.
Ato Essien is on trial with the defunct bank’s former Managing Director, Fitzgerald Odonkor as well as Tetteh Nettey, a former Managing Director of MC Management Services owned by Mr. Essien.
The three have been charged with 23 counts of conspiracy to commit crime and stealing from GH¢620 million liquidity support given to the defunct bank by the Bank of Ghana (BoG), which according to the prosecution was mismanaged leading to the collapse of Capital Bank.
Ato Essien and Tetteh Nettey have each opened their defence and denied the charges levelled against them by the Attorney General. Rev. Fitzgerald has also opened his defence and is under cross-examination by Baffour Gyau Bonsu Ashia, counsel for Mr. Essien.
Interrogation Tape
Meanwhile, the court has admitted into evidence an audio recording of a confrontation between Ato Essien and the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which investigated the allegations made against the accused persons.
The tape was tendered by Rev. Odonkor as part of his evidence although it was opposed to by counsel for Mr. Essien, who had argued that the confrontation between Mr. Essien and the SIT was done without the consent of his client.
He also argued that Rev. Odonkor was not the author of the recordings and was not present when the recording took place.
Justice Kyei Baffour, however, admitted the recording on ground that it was part of the disclosures made by the prosecution, and lawyers for the accused person were given copies “and that being in the custody of all the lawyers involved in the case and being further satisfied that the lawyer for A1 (Mr. Essien) had played and listened to the recording based on which he even raised objection from restraining the court from listening to it.”
He said in order to effectively manage the conduct of the case, the court would proceed with the trial and listen to the content of the recording in due time.
GH¢130m Placement
Rev. Odonkor while under cross-examination told the court that the management team of the defunct bank was not in support of the GH¢100 million the bank placed with All Time Capital as well as the GH¢30 million also placed at Nordea Capital Limited, two companies allegedly belonging to Ato Essien.
“Our responsibility as management was to ensure the prudent management of the liquidity support from BoG, and it was the position of the management that placing GH¢100 million with All Time Capital and GH¢30 million with Nordea Capital will not help in the prudential management of the liquidity support,” he told the court.
“But in the end, after the back-and-forth deliberations by the board of Capital Bank, the board by a majority, decided to place the GH¢100 million with All Time Capital,” Mr. Ashia queried.
“No, my Lord. It was more of a directive by the board,” Rev. Odonkor responded. Hearing continues on June 16.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak