Former Chief Executive Officer of Capital Bank, Ato Essien, has been jailed 15 years for failing to settle GH¢90 million cedis he agreed to pay the state despite several lifelines given him.
It could be recalled that in May, 2023, the court have Ato Essien two months period month to pay at least ¢20 out of the money due. However, he failed to pay.
Before this Ato Essien was sentenced to prison in December 2022 after pleading guilty in the state under section 35 of the Courts Act to avoid a prison sentence.
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However, he had difficulty paying the debt of GH¢ 90 million imposed on him by the court. According to the agreement, Ato Essien must pay GH¢ 90 million by the end of 2023. He was able to pay GH¢ 30 million in December 2022, with the remainder to be paid in three installments in 2023.
The first payment must be made by the end of April 2023, otherwise he will be put in jail. However, by the end of April, Ato Essien had paid only GH¢ 6 million out of the ¢20 million.
The state requested the court to issue an order to him because the terms of the contract stipulated that a decision would be made against him if he goes contrarily to the payment plan.
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However, Judge Eric Kyei Baffour postponed the hearing of the arbitration application at the request of the arbitrator. Ato Essien’s lawyers argued that an agreement was reached with the company to remove part of the property belonging to their client in order to pay the debt.
However, it was revealed that Ato Essien had only paid an extra GH¢2 million. This brings the total amount of the initial deposit to GH¢ 8 million and the remainder to ¢ 12 million. This means the Ato Essien has paid just ¢38m of the ¢90m debt, leaving ¢52m