Capital Bank trial: Ato Essien cries in court, pleads guilty to charges as Judge agrees to terms of repayment

The first accused in the Capital Bank trial, William Ato Essien has pleaded guilty to 16 counts of charges including stealing and money laundering.

In court on Tuesday, December 13, Deputy Attorney General explained to the court how the state arrived at the agreement with the accused’s defense counsels. Citing how Ato Essien caused financial loss he noted that section 35 of the Court’s Act is applicable.

Capital Bank was granted liquidity support in the sum of 620m Ghana cedis by the state through BoG. Out of this amount the first accused person and the other two accused persons have been charged with offenses which cover a total sum of 192.5m Ghana cedis. The first question therefore is if the money isn’t paid back to the state has the state not been saddled with financial loss. The answer is positive

“As we speak now, the license of capital Bank has been revoked by the Bank of Ghana pursuant to section 133 of the specialized…Act 930. Upon this revocation the access and liability of Capital Bank were taken over by the Ghana Commercial Bank. GCB is a state bank, therefore properly speaking the current owner of the assets of Capital Bank is the GCB (a state bank). Again the current institution that is now saddled with the responsibility to pay the liability is the GCB. It is therefore our contention that if the 192.5m isn’t paid, GCB will have to pay and by extension there is an economic loss to the state”.

Pursuant to the revocation of the licenses of the various banks by BoG, the state had to step in to pay the depositors of these banks including Capital Bank. The state had to pay in excess of 25bn Ghana cedis to depositors. There is therefore no doubt that the 192.5m Ghana cedis forms part of the 25bn.
In conclusion it is our firm position that section 2 or Article 35 is applicable” Alfred Tuah told the court.

In a further breakdown, the Deputy AG narrated how investigations brought to bare an amount of 64m Ghana cedis which was used by another company, Capital African Group to acquire shares in Capital Bank. He noted that the amount was paid through an ecobank account.

” We realized that this amount came out of the 192.5m Ghana cedis. The shares of acquisition was reversed and the money retained by capital Bank.

” Again, during investigation it came out that another amount totalling 25m Ghana cedis was used to acquire shares in Capital Bank. This 35m was realized to be part of the 192.5m Ghana cedis therefore the share acquisition was reversed and the money was retained by Capital Bank. The total amount from these two transactions is 100m Ghana cedis therefore the outstanding amount out of the 192.5m Ghana cedis stands at 92m Ghana cedis.”

Mr Tuah Yeboah stated that first accused person, Ato Essien refunded 1.3m Ghana cedis to EOCO thereby further reducing the outstanding amount to 90.7m Ghana cedis.

Counsel for Capital Bank’s CEO, Thaddeus Sory explained to the court that after extensive discussions with the State there was an agreement to have the accused repay monies.

He cited a statement by former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo in 2003 urging for a more modern approach to cases which placed focus on recoveries rather than prosecutions.

Per the terms of the agreement William Ato Essien is to pay to pay 90 million cedis in total: an initial 30 million and 60 million in 3 instalments to the state.

Responding to the terms Presiding judge, Eric Kyei Baffour noted that ” Having listened to the deputy AG that with the revocation of the license of capital bank and that state is in the custody of capital bank and that the state has made huge payments to depositors and the monies are huge loss to the state I am prepared to accept the agreement under section 35.

“The first accused indicates that he is unable to increase the total amount to be paid as reparation and restitution.
Further rejection of the agreement may overreach the first accused pursuant to the agreement reached. I will therefore accept the agreement.”

The first accused broke down in tears as the court began to take his pleas to the charges leveled against him.

Second and third accused persons acquitted and discharged. They are not guilty of charges leveled against them.

As first accused has pleaded guilty and court satisfied with terms of agreement of restitution.Court convicts first accused on all charges leveled against him by the Republic.

By uniquenewsgh.com