Ato Essien
The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of defunct Capital Bank, William Ato Essien, and three others accused of stealing money from the bank were yesterday granted a total of GH¢675 million bail by an Accra High Court.
The defunct bank’s former Managing Director, Fitzgerald Odonkor, together with Tetteh Nettey, a former Managing Director of MC Management Service owned by Ato Essien, as well as a businesswoman, Kate Quartey-Papafio, are before the court charged with 26 counts of conspiracy, stealing and money laundering.
The four are alleged to have misappropriated a total of GH¢620 million liquidity support given to the bank by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to enable it to service its maturing debt, but allegedly blew the cash.
Jute Bags
The accused persons, according to the state, opened various bank accounts with Capital Bank through which the GH¢620 million BoG liquidity support was transferred, while others were carried in jute bags to Ato Essien as payment for business promotion.
Money Stolen
The charges levelled against the accused persons indicate that Ato Essien and Tetteh Nettey, between October and November 2015, with the help of Fitzgerald Odonkor, stole GH¢100 million belonging to the bank.
Ato Essien and Tetteh Nettey are alleged to have also stolen, between the same period, GH¢30 million from the bank.
According to the charge sheet, the two, again in January 2016, stole and laundered an amount of GH¢35 million from the bank.
The charges against Ato Essien and Tetteh Nettey also state that the two, in June 2015, stole another GH¢2 million from the defunct bank orchestrated by Fitzgerald Odonkor.
Again, Ato Essien and Tetteh Nettey, are said to have stolen another GH¢5 million from the bank in September 2015 engineered by Fitzgerald Odonkor.
The alleged ‘rot’ also includes another theft of GH¢12 million by Ato Essien.
Quartey-Papafio and Ato Essien were accused of conspiracy in stealing GH¢70 million from the bank between June and August 2017.
Other monies allegedly stolen by the accused persons include GH¢8.5 million in October 2016 belonging to the bank.
Main Charges
Ato Essien and Tetteh Nettey are each facing two counts of conspiracy while Kate Quartey-Papafio is facing three counts of conspiracy, stealing and money laundering.
Ato Essien and Tetteh Nettey are facing other four counts of stealing while Ato Essien alone is facing another six counts of stealing.
Furthermore, Ato Essien and Tetteh Nettey are facing two counts of money laundering while Ato Essien alone is facing another five counts of money laundering.
Bail Application
Lawyers for the accused persons prayed the court to grant them bail pending the trial, assuring the court that their clients are no flight risk and would make themselves available for the trial.
Ato Essien and Tetteh Nettey were represented by Thaddeus Sory; Fitzgerald was represented by Justin Amenuvor, while Kate Quartey-Papafio was represented by Dominic Ayine.
The prosecution led by the Attorney General, Gloria Afua Akuffo, did not oppose the grant of bail but prayed the court to add sureties and other conditions that would compel the accused persons to appear for the trial.
Bail Conditions
The court presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffuor granted Ato Essien, Tetteh Nettey and Fitzgerald Odonkor bail of GH¢200 million with four sureties each.
Kate Quartey-Papafio on the other hand was granted GH¢75 million bail also with four sureties.
Case Facts
According to the facts presented by the Attorney General, Ato Essien in October 2015 with the help of Fitzgerald Odonkor transferred GH¢120 million out of the GH¢620 million BoG liquidity support to All Time Capital Limited out of which GH¢100 million was later transferred to MC Management Service and the remaining GH¢20 million transferred to Pronto Construction and Supplies Limited.
Sovereign Bank
The AG said the GH¢100 million which was transferred to MC Management was later represented to BoG as initial capital for Sovereign Bank, while the remaining GH¢20 million was used by the Managing Director of Pronto Construction ostensibly to purchase shares in Capital Bank.
Again, GH¢65 million from the BoG liquidity money was transferred to Nordea Capital out of which Ato Essien aided by Fitzgerald transferred GH¢30 million as additional initial capital for Sovereign Bank.
The remaining GH¢35 million was later transferred to a Fidelity Bank account of Brietling Services owned by Ato Essien and later Capital Africa Group, another company owned by Essien.
The AG stated that the GH¢130 million which was represented as initial capital for Sovereign Bank was later transferred to Capital Africa Group and eventually dissipated by Ato Essien and Tetteh Nettey.
Interestingly, between June 2015 and October 2016, Ato Essien with the aid of Fitzgerald Odonkor appropriated GH¢27 million from the liquidity support which were conveyed in jute bags to Ato Essien as payment for business promotion.
100m Transfer
The facts also stated how Ato Essien caused another GH¢100 million to be transferred into three separate accounts purposely created with Capital Bank for the receipt of the money and Ato Essien later caused GH¢70 million to be transferred into the Cal Bank account of Kate Quartey-Papafio which was later transferred into her Capital Bank account.
It added that sometime in 2017 when Capital Bank had gone into receivership, Kate Quartey-Papafio attempted to withdraw the entire GH¢70 million but was prevented from doing so by the receivers.
Hearing continues on November 20, 2019.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak