CEO of defunct Capital Bank, Ato Essien The prosecution yesterday called its first witness in the trial of the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of defunct Capital Bank, Ato Essien, and three others who were put before an Accra High Court over their alleged involvement in the misappropriation of funds leading to the collapse of the private bank.
In his evidence, the witness, Vish Ashiagbor, a Director at Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), an auditing firm, told the court about some “suspicious transactions” initiated by the accused persons in the aftermath of a GH¢620 million received by Capital Bank as liquidity support from the Bank of Ghana (BoG).
Trial
The former Managing Director of the defunct bank, Fitzgerald Odonkor, together with Tetteh Nettey, a former Managing Director of MC Management Service owned by Mr. Essien, as well as a businesswoman, Kate Quartye-Papafio, are before the court charged with 26 counts of conspiracy, stealing and money laundering.
The four are alleged to have misappropriated a total of GH¢620 million liquidity support given to the bank by the central bank 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¢675 million BoG liquidity support was transferred, while others were carried in jute bags to Ato Essien.
PW1
Mr. Ashiagbor, together with Eric Nana Nipah, who are the receivers of the defunct bank, told the court that in the course of their investigations, they found that out of the GH¢620 million liquidity support Capital Bank received from BoG, approximately GH¢27.5 million was paid to Ato Essien to be used as payment for ‘business promotion’.
The court also heard how some GH¢120 million out of the liquidity support was transferred to All Time Capital Limited who were acting as arrangers of commercial payment, but the money was later used for the establishment of Sovereign Bank.
Mr. Ashiagbor also told the court that another ‘suspicious’ transaction discovered during their investigations was the ‘rediscounting’ of invoices for three companies which rendered services to the Department of Urban Roads.
He said these companies made arrangements with Capital Bank Ghana Limited to discount their invoices and the bank paid a total of GH¢105 million to the three companies.Again, he said they noted during their investigations that GH¢70 million was transferred to the account of Kate Quartye-Papafio at Cal Bank, and she also transferred the funds back to Capital […]