William Ato Essien
The Court of Appeal has granted convicted founder of defunct Capital Bank, William Ato Essien a bail of GH¢10 million pending an appeal against his 15 years’ prison sentence.
This comes at a time when there is growing call on President John Mahama to pardon Ato Essien, who is said to be critically ill.
Ato Essien was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment on October 12, 2023, for embezzling funds of the defunct bank, leading to its collapse.
An initial attempt to secure a bail pending an appeal against the sentences at the High Court failed, and his lawyers subsequently repeated the application at the Court of Appeal.
The major ground of the appeal is what is said to be the deteriorating health of the convict, and that he had paid a substantial part of the GH¢90 million he agreed with the Office of the Attorney General to pay as compensation and restitution.
The Attorney General’s Office opposed the application for bail pending appeal on ground that the convict was jailed primarily because he failed to meet the terms of the agreement and timelines for payment.
A three-member panel of the court presided over by Justice Anthony Oppong granted the application, holding that there is the need to examine Section 35 of the Courts Act, 1993 (Act 459), which allows an accused person to offer compensation or restitution for economic loss, harm, or damage caused to the state or a state agency, in exchange for a potential non-custodial sentence.
The court subsequently granted Ato Essien a bail of GH¢10 million with two sureties. He was ordered to deposit his passport at the court’s registry.
Background
William Ato Essien was dragged before the court on October 15, 2019, for stealing from the GH¢620 million liquidity support given to the struggling bank in 2015, which led to its insolvency and subsequent collapse.
He had pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against him. The prosecution called 17 witnesses to prove its case, and the court at the end of the trial found him guilty of the offences.
He was convicted by a High Court in Accra in December 2022, after he admitted stealing from the bank and subsequently changed his plea from not guilty to guilty pursuant to an agreement he reached with the Office of the Attorney General under Section 35 of the Courts Act to repay GH¢90 million as reparation and restitution.
He has since paid GH¢39 million.
The court had added that a failure by Ato Essien to pay the full amount which was to be paid in three instalments on or before April 28, 2023, nullified the agreement and he should be arrested and brought before the court for him to be committed to prison.
The court also prohibited him from being appointed the director of any bank, financial institution or deposit-taking institution.
He missed the payment terms and timelines multiple times, and the then Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, filed an application urging the court to jail him.
Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, a Justice of the Court of Appeal sitting as an additional High Court judge, in handing the sentence, indicated that Mr. Essien’s crime could not “be seen as one of the many stealing cases” as the thefts were executed in an opportunistic manner.
“He demonstrated shear greed in his desire to own another bank – Sovereign Bank aside Capital Bank, and the huge sums of money involved were taken from Capital Bank in a manner that led to its collapse,” the judge held in his decision.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak