The Former Chief Executive Officer of defunct Capital Bank, Ato Essien was yesterday sentenced to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour by an Accra High Court.
This comes after he failed to fully pay back to the state GH¢90 million as part of the plea bargaining agreed upon by the court.
Mr Essien had earlier agreed to pay the GH¢90 million in installments but failed to do so despite several lifelines given him since December 2022.
He pleaded guilty to 16 counts of stealing, money laundering and conspiracy to steal for his role in the collapse of Capital Bank.
Mr Essien had paid GH¢30 million upfront in December 2022 and was required to pay GH¢20 million as the first installment of the GH¢60 million outstanding amount by April 28, 2023.
But he was only able to pay GH¢5 million in May, and was given until July 4 to liquidate his assets and pay the state GH¢55 million but this deadline elapsed without any payments made.
The state had no option than submit a request to the court, seeking a custodial sentence in line with the agreement terms.
Counsel for the convict had pleaded with the court to give the convict six more months to pay, but the court presided by Justice Eric Kyei Baffour would have none of that.
Justice Baffour said if the convict was interested in settling the amount he would have used the two months legal vacation period to settle the amount which was the Bank of Ghana’s liquidity support to the now-defunct financial institution which he was accused of stealing.
William Ato Essien, Rev. Fitzgerald Odonkor and Tetteh Nettey, a former Managing Director of MC Management Service owned by Mr Essien were charged with 23 counts of conspiracy, stealing from the GH¢620 million liquidity support given to the bank by the Bank of Ghana (BoG), to enable it to service its maturing debt.
The accused persons, according to the prosecution, 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.
He however, entered a plea bargain with the state under section 35(7) of the courts ACT 459.
Under the agreement, Mr Essien was expected to pay GH¢90 million for which he paid GH¢30 million cedis on December 13.
He was to pay the GH¢60 million remainder in three equal instalments in 2023; GH¢20 million by April 28, another GH¢20 million by August 31 and the last GH¢20 million by December 15, 2023.
A major condition of the agreement was that the court would not hesitate to impose a custodial sentence if he missed any of the payment deadlines, but as of April 28, Mr Essien had not paid all the GH¢20 million due to be settled.
The state filed an application on May 2, 2023, to get a custodial sentence imposed on the convict (Ato Essien) but that application was not heard as the presiding judge, Justice Eric Kyei Baffour gave him (Ato Essien) about six months to redeem himself.
But the convict between January and October 12, had only paid GH¢7 million in addition to the GH¢30 million previously paid.
With GH¢53 million of the agreed sum outstanding and the judge having exhausted his patience allowed the state to move the application upon which Mr Essien was sentenced.
BY LAWRENCE VOMAFA-AKPALU