The Founder of the defunct Capital Bank, Willaim Ato Essien, is expected to be out of jail after being granted bail pending appeal by the Court of Appeal.
Ato Essien, who is serving a 15-year jail term for stealing money belonging to the bank, was granted bail in the sum of GH¢10 million with two sureties.
The three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, presided over by Justice Anthony Oppong, further ordered Ato Essien to deposit his passport at the court’s registry and to report to the Registrar of the court monthly.
He, however, could not meet the bail conditions as of yesterday, leaving him still confined in custody.
Bail pending appeal
The ruling by the second highest court of the land followed an application filed by lawyers of Ato Essien for bail pending appeal pursuant to Section 33 of the Courts Act, 1993 (Act 459).
Prior to the application, Ato Essien filed an appeal challenging his conviction and sentence by the Accra High Court, describing them as a miscarriage of justice.
Section 33 of Act 459 allows a trial court or an appellate court to grant a convict bail pending the determination of an appeal filed by the convict challenging his conviction.
However, Section 33 of Act 459 stipulates that the time the convict spends on bail shall not be counted as part of the sentence, meaning if the appeal fails, the period the convict was on bail will be added to the sentence.
Ato Essien initially filed the application before the trial High Court which convicted him, but it was dismissed, leading to the appeal before the Court of Appeal.
Application
In the motion for bail pending appeal, lawyers for Ato Essien argued that his conviction was a miscarriage of justice because Essien had already paid GH¢43.7 million as restitution to the state, which amounted to almost one third of the GH¢90 million he agreed to pay.
According to Ato Essien’s legal team, allowing the state to keep the money and also jail him was unjust .
“Applicant’s contention is that it will be clearly absurd and occasion applicant a gross miscarriage of justice if the Republic benefits from part of the agreement and in addition takes its pound of flesh by way of a custodial sentence passed on applicant whilst applicant suffer the clear double jeopardy of losing the sum of GH¢43,750,000 and yet still be put in prison,” the lawyers contended.
They further urged the court to grant their client bail pending appeal due to his deteriorating health condition in prison.
It was their case that if their client was not granted bail pending appeal, he might suffer an irreversible health condition which could not be compensated for if his appeal succeeded.
Sentence
In October 2023, the Accra High Court, presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, sentenced Ato Essien to 15 years imprisonment in hard labour for stealing funds of Capital Bank, which was given to the bank as part of liquidity support from the Bank of Ghana.
He, thus, became the first banking executive to serve a jail term following the massive banking sector clean-up in 2017 that led to the collapse of seven indigenous banks, including Capital Bank.
However, Ato Essien found himself in jail after he failed to meet the timelines of the payment of GH¢90 million to the state as restitution.
On December 13, 2022, Ato 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.
He was accordingly convicted by the court, but avoided a custodial sentence when he reached an agreement with the Attorney-General 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.
Ato Essien paid GH¢30 million in December 2022, 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.
Justice Kyei Baffour, after giving the green light for the agreement to be effected, ruled that Essien risked going to jail if he failed to abide by the terms as stipulated by Section 35 of Act 459.
As of Oct 12, 2023 when he was jailed, Essien had paid only GH¢7 million out of a possible GH¢40 million, missing the instalment payments for April 28 and August 31 that year per the agreement.
In total, at the time of his sentence, Ato Essien had paid GH¢37 million out of GH¢90 million, with an amount of GH¢53 million remaining to be paid.
source: Graphic Online
