Ato Essien jailed: I haven't seen any of the board members on trial - Atik Mohammed

Atik Mohammed has expressed sadness over the sentence meted out to founder of the defunct Capital Bank, William Ato Essien over a case of embezzlement.

An Accra High Court has sentenced William Ato Essien, to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour for stealing over GH¢90 million of the bank’s money.

Essien Jailed 15 Years

Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, presiding over the case, held that Ato Essien exploited Capital Bank to his advantage and dissipated the funds of the bank without taking into consideration the depositors of the bank.

“The convict demonstrated sheer greed in his desire to own another bank besides Capital Bank Ltd and left no stone unturned through subterfuge and deceit with pure criminal intent to set up Sovereign Bank Ltd.

“Being in a position of trust, he was expected to have demonstrated a sense of responsibility and true fidelity. He had no cause, whatsoever, to steal such gargantuan sums of money,” the Judge said.

The Judge ruled that Essien goes to jail for 15 years.

“I cannot fail to take into account the trail of pain and tears that had been occasioned by the criminal conduct of the convict (Essien). 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,” Justice Kyei Baffour remarked.

Atik shares his thoughts

To Atik, it saddens him that Essien, who he described as a "young man", is going to jail at his "prime" age.

However, he noted that it's appropriate that those who mismanaged their banks following the Central Bank's intervention by giving them money to liquidate their banks must be accordingly punished.

Atik Mohammed sought to draw the attention of the prosecutors to the other persons who were equally found complicit in the several cases of malfeasance in the financial sector, asking "what has been done to them too?"

"How about the other banks that went under that they made us know it was through mismanagement?", he further asked.

He also questioned what is being done about the Board members who were on Ato Essien's bank saying "the Board is the highest decision-making body; I haven't seen any of the Board members is standing trial".

Atik gave these submissions on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" show on Friday, October 13, 2023.

Ato Essien Pleads Guilty

On December 13, 2022, Essien pleaded guilty to 16 counts of stealing and money laundering when he admitted to dissipating over GH¢90 million of liquidity support extended to Capital Bank by the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

He was accordingly convicted by the court but avoided a custodial sentence when he reached an agreement with the Attorney-General (A-G) to repay the GH¢90 million to the state as reparation and restitution.

The agreement was pursuant to Section 35 of the Courts Act, 1993 (Act 459), which allows accused persons standing trial for causing economic loss to the state to admit the offence and pay the money to possibly avoid prison.

Essien paid GH¢30 million in December last year, and per the agreement as adopted by the court was supposed to pay the remaining GH¢60 million in three GH¢20 million, installments, with the first payment on or before April 28, 2023; second payment on or before August 31, 2023, and the last tranche on or before December 15, 2023 but he failed to meet the deadlines.