Following the sentencing of founder of defunct Capital Bank William Ato Essien by an Accra High Court, some have asked why other key decision makers in the bank were not equally prosecuted.

The 14 others include William Ato Essien, Oheneba Osei Akoto, Stephen Enchill, Kingsley Atta Ghansah, Otabil and Associates, International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Kwadwo Ayisi Ahwireng, Isaac Osah Thompson-Mensah and John Kofi Mensah who are all shareholders of the defunct company and Fitzgerald Odonkor, Amadu Montia, Kofi Kwakwa and Francis Adu-Mante who were directors of the company.

Why Civil action?

The Receiver is seeking to recover more than 800 million cedis from these individuals.

For instance, the High Court is being asked to recover 468 million cedis being shareholders loan and 108 million cedis being facilities granted to Ato Essien and his related companies which remain outstanding.

The court has also been asked to allow a recovery of 51 million cedis from the ICGC.

Allegations of fraud

The receiver argues in court documents that the Directors of the defunct bank approved loans and placement of funds to themselves and related parties without the requisite collaterals and in clear breach of the Company’s internal policies, relevant banking regulations and Ghanaian Company law.

The directors are alleged to have supervised the disbursement of liquidity support (620 million cedis) granted by the Bank of Ghana in breach of banking regulations and guidelines issued by the Central Bank.

The High Court case remained on hold as the debate on this continued first at the High Court and later at the Court of Appeal.

Essien as happened at the High Court allowing him to challenge the BOG’s actions in the same suit.

The High Court has meanwhile set November 21 to hear legal arguments on whether the Receivers have the capacity to sustain the legal action since the assets of the bank now belong to GCB Bank.

Source: 3news.com