Wiliam Ato Essien
An Accra High Court has accepted the terms of the GH₵90 million agreement between the Office of Attorney General and founder and former Chief Executive Officer of defunct Capital Bank, Wiliam Ato Essien, who has been accused of stealing from the bank.
Th court presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, a Court of Appeal judge sitting as an additional High Court just on December 1, 2022, rejected the terms of the agreement on ground that Section 35 of the Courts Act pursuant o which the agreement was reached did not apply to the case.
The court also raised concerns about the total amount to be paid as reparation and restitution, urging the parties to go back to the negotiation table and adjust the amount upward and also come back to convince the court that Section 35 was applicable.
Deputy Attorney General, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, today told the court that Section 35 was applicable because the licence of Capital Bank was revoked by the Bank of Ghana and the assets and liabilities of the bank was taken over by the Ghana Commercial Bank which is a state agency.
He said the government of Ghana has over the years paid over GH₵25 billion to depositors as a result of the revocations of the licences of underperforming banks, including Capital Bank and therefore, resulting in a loss to the state.
Asked by the presiding Judge how they arrived at GH₵90 million as the money to be repaid when the money was stolen about six years ago, Mr. Tuah- Yeboah said the total amount stolen by Ato Essien was GH₵192 million but investigation revealed that two shares worth GH₵65 million and GH₵35 million were bought using the bank’s own monies so the shares were reversed and the monies were retained by the bank, leaving an outstanding amount of GH₵92 million.
He said the Ato Essien also paid an amount of GH₵1.2 million to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) during investigations into the matter. “This further reduces the outstanding amount to GH₵90.7 million. The records on these transfers and transactions are before this court,” he added.
Thaddeus Sory, counsel for Ato Essien, in justifying the GH₵90 million to be paid as reparation and restitution indicated that there was an amount of GH₵35 million that was not accounted.
He said the GH₵35m which was the subject matter of counts 1 to 4 was repeated in counts 9 to 11 thereby resulting in double accounting, indicating that after painstaking discussions, the Attorney General negotiated an extra GH₵30 million which the first accused agreed to pay.
“So with regard to the interest component, the GH₵30 million takes care of that,” Mr. Sory added.
Justice Kyei Baffour after listening to the parties accepted the agreement, indicating that adjusting the total sum any further may overreach Ato Essien pursuant to the agreement reached. “I will therefore accept the agreement,” he stated.
Ato Essien then pleaded guilty to all the 16 counts of conspiracy to steal, stealing and money laundering levelled against him and he was convicted on his own plea.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak