The High Court judge who tried and convicted the founder of defunct Capital Bank, William Ato Essien to 15-years in prison says the convict “demonstrated sheer greed” while using “subterfuge and deceit to with pure criminal intent.”
Essien was convicted on charges of stealing and money laundering and Court of Appeal judge, Eric Kyei Baffour in his written 10-page ruling minced no words about the scale and gravity of the crimes the court says Essien committed.
Failed banks: Ato Essien to spend 15 years in prison
He said for instance that, Essien received money belonging to the bank in jute bags and said the sentence reflected the magnitude of the crime.
Court of Appeal judge Eric Kyei Baffuor who handled the case as an additional High Court Judge justified the sentence by carefully analyzing its impact on society and said the conviction captures the “five-fold purpose for which sentence and punishment by a court is supposed to serve, namely; first to be punitive, second, calculated to deter others, third, to reform the offender, fourth, to appease the society and finally, to be a safeguard to Ghana.”
He pointed out that the criminal conduct resulted in the collapse of the bank.
“Countless number of innocent citizens lost their jobs and are still job hunting. The nation had to spend huge sums of money to bail the creditors and depositors” he stated.
He also indicated that the businessman also wasted the court’s time by requiring prosecutors to parade 17 witnesses and finally admitted his guilt at the tail end of the case.
“I place on record that I cannot gloss over the fact that he pleaded guilty after he had wasted the time of the court for over three years and had caused the Republic to parade seventeen witnesses before the court.”
He further argued that the convict demonstrated sheer greed in the manner the crime was committed.
“The huge sums of monies involved were taken out of Capital Bank in a manner that eventually led to its collapse. Some of these monies were packed in jute bags and delivered to the convict (Ato Essien). He demonstrated sheer greed in his desire to own another Bank besides Capital Bank Ldt and left on stone unturned through subterfuge and deceit with pure criminal intent to set up Sovereign Bank Ltd.”
The Bank of Ghana in 2017 revoked the license of Capital Bank explaining that it was deficient in capital and liquidity and that its continuous operation would jeorpadise not only their depositors’ funds but also pose a threat to the banking system.
Governor of the BOG Dr. Ernest Addision made the following remarks at a news conference;
“It has therefore become necessary for us to revoke their banking licenses and approve this transaction to allow GCB, the large bank with the right balance sheet to take over all the deposits and selected assets of the two banks (UT and capital-Bank).”
Ato Essien however maintained the bank was in good condition alleging in an interview with Accra-based Metro TV that the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta had tried to buy his bank in 2016.
“if the Bank was that bad, our current Finance Minister, Hon Ken Ofori Atta together with the Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise group, Kelly Gadzekpo were in my office, to say, they were interested in buying Capital Bank,” he stated.
Mr. Ofori Atta and Kelly Gadzekpo denied the claim.
In October 2019, Mr. Essien and three others were charged with multiple counts of stealing and money laundering of various sums in excess of 250 million cedis.
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The Other accused persons were; Dr. Tetteh Nettey- Managing Director of MC Management Services Ltd, Fitzgerald Odonkor- Former MD of Capital Bank, Kate Quartey-Papafio-CEO of Rerooy Cables.
In December 2022, Ato Essien entered into an agreement to refund 90 million cedis to the state. He was convicted and asked to obey the timelines for repayment or risk custodial sentence. All other accused persons were found not guilty of the charges.
Terms of payment
He paid 30 million cedis upfront and was required to pay the remaining 60 million cedis in three instalments of 20 million each. The first was to be paid by April 28, 2023. The Court noted that should he fail to make this payment, the entire 60 million becomes payable or the court imposes custodial sentence.
In April 2023, the Attorney General applied for custodial sentence saying the payment terms have been breached. As at September 2023, Mr. Essien had paid 37 million cedis leaving an outstanding balance of 53 million cedis. The High Court therefore imposed a 15 jail term.
Who is Ato Essien
William Ato Essien is a banker with a bachelor’s degree in marketing from central university college. He first set up First Capital Plus (FCP) in 2009, a company which went on to grow as a microfinance with a deposit base of GHC 36.06 million and with a total asset size of GHC 47.18 million by the end of 2010. In 2011, he acquired a 24% stake in Gye Nyame Resources in Zimbabwe.
The now-defunct diamond mine has been closed down on environmental grounds and bad business practices. He also founded Essien Swiss International Capital Holdings. He grew up in Agona Swedru and attended Winneba Secondary School after which he started trading in used clothing at Accra central, buying and re-selling Books on University campuses, selling stoves at Sunyani and has also earned a living as a head porter at Kaneshie market at the age of 16.
Before settling into mainstream micro-finance, Essien started a printing press called Wade Laurel Printing Press. He later started small Savings and Loans Company within his community which became Capital Bank, and later, was taken over by GCB Bank. He additionally has majority interests in ESICH life Assurance Company Ltd, Ocean Spring Natural Mineral Water, Empire Radio and a partner Director for Lloyds Brokers Company Ltd. Essien is married to Gifty Essien with four children.