William Ato Essien, Founder of the defunct Capital Bank William Ato Essien, Founder of the defunct Capital Bank, and three others whose roles allegedly led to the collapse of the bank, have been admitted to bail by the Commercial Court (High Court Division).
Essien, who is also a Majority Shareholder of Capital Bank Limited, Tetteh Nettey, Managing Director of MC Management Services, a company established by Essien, and Fitzgerald Odonkor, a former Managing Director of Capital Bank, were admitted to bail in the sum of 200-million cedis each while Kate Quartey Papafio, a businesswoman and Chief Executive officer of Reroy Cables Company Limited, was admitted to bail in the sum of 75 million cedis.
The four accused persons are to provide four sureties each who are of good character and are of substance.
The Court, presided over by Mr Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, further ordered them to deposit their passports to the Registry.
It further directed the prosecution to furnish all the accused persons with the necessary documents, audios or video recordings that they intend to rely on during the trial.
According to the Court, the State is to comply with the orders by November 13 and adjourned the case to November 20.
Essien is facing 26 counts of conspiracy, stealing and money laundering. The rest are variously being held for abetment of crime. They have denied the charges.
Defence counsels took the turn to argue for bail for their clients. Mr Baffour Gyewu Bonsu, Counsel for Essien and Nettey, submitted that his clients had fixed places of abode and that before stepping in court, they were already on Police Enquiry bail.
Mr Bonsu prayed the court to admit them to self-recognisance bail.
Mr Justice Amenuvor, who represented Odonkor, prayed the court to admit his client to bail without any justification and Mr Dominic Ayine, the Counsel for Kate Papafio, said his client had cooperated with the Police and that the Ghc70 million given to Kate as loan had been transferred to EOCO and was being used as exhibit.
Ms Gloria Akuffo, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, who led the prosecution, did not oppose the bail but prayed the court to order the accused persons to produce their passport to the Registry.Ms Akuffo explained that during investigations the accused persons had not seen the charges.She noted that things had changed hence prayed the court to order the accused persons to provide sureties.The case of the state is […]