Ato Essien’s Current “Noise” Is A Tactical Approach To Court Public Sympathy Pending His Prosecution - Abronye Claims
Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe aka Abronye DC has exposed the founder of defunct Capital Bank, Mr. Ato Essien by indicating that Finance Minister and co-founder of DataBank Hon Ken Ofori Atta approached him in attempt to purchase his defunct bank.
Ato Essien speaking on Good Evening Ghana on Metro TV, stated that Mr. Ofori Atta personally came to him with the proposal to convince him to sell off the bank.
He also argues that if his bank was not being well managed, it would not have attracted interest from Ken Ofori Atta then.
“If the bank [were] that bad, would the current Finance Minister and the Board Chairman of Enterprise, Keli Gadzekpo, come to my office to say: 'We are interested to buy Capital Bank? Ken Ofori-Atta came to my office in 2016 to make that proposal,” he told host, Paul Adom-Otchere.
But Abronye DC setting the records straight in a statement copied to Peacefmonline.com indicated that even though Ato Essien founded First Capital Plus (FCP) in October 2009 which became a bank in 2013 but the sector crumbled due to bad banking practice.
According to Abronye DC a report has earlier reveals that, “Bad banking practices meant Capital Bank had depleted its own capital, no longer able to meet the requests of depositors for their funds.”
“ After all these useless and reckless expenditures, Ato Essien then blames Ken Ofori Atta for the collapse of capital bank…all the noise of Ato Essien is targeted at winning public sympathy because he will be prosecuted soon due to his bank fraud.,” the statement stressed.
Read full statement below; ATO ESSIEN’S CURRENT “NOISE” IS A TACTICAL APPROACH TO SEEK PUBLIC SYMPATHY PENDING HIS PROSECUTION NEXT MONTH -Kwame Baffoe Abronye Writes
After laying down low after the collapse of his financial institution which has invariably caused havoc to families, founder of now defunct Capital Bank has defended its viability by indicating that Finance Minister and co-founder of DataBank Hon Ken Ofori Atta approached him in attempt to purchase his defunct bank.
Mr. William Ato Essien fallaciously disclosed to host of Metro TV’s current affairs programme, Good Evening Ghana, Paul Adom Otchere, that in 2016 Mr. Ken Ofori Atta, in the company of co-founder of Databank who doubles as Enterprise Group CEO, Keli Gadzekpo, sought to convince him to sell off the bank.
Capital Bank is one of several banks who have had their licenses revoked by the Central Bank following their 'inability to resolve their negative capital adequacy position in the sector'.
The Bank of Ghana indicated that the action to revoke the license of capital bank was necessary because Mr. Ato Essien had resorted to “willful deceit” which contributed to collapse of the bank.
Ato Essien’s comment sought to imply that, granted without admitting that, the Finance Minister proposed to purchase capital bank which did not suffice lead to the collapse of his bank.
SETTING THE RECORDS STRAIGHT
Ato Essien founded First Capital Plus (FCP) in October 2009 which became a bank in 2013.
In October, 2015 thereabout, Capital Bank was struggling and would have had a huge sigh of relief after ¢610m bail-out money from Bank of Ghana landed in their account.
They were granted this bailout as a result of a three member committee set up by Dr. Kofi Wampanoag . The members of the committee includes; i. Alhaji Amadu Montia-Chairman ii. Rev Fitzgerald Odonkor-Member iii. Mr Micheal Amankwah-Member After a thorough investigations of the Wampah committee, they concluded that, the Bank Of Ghana should grant capital bank a bailout of 300million which was squandered by William Ato Essien and his associates.
At an Emergency meeting held on the 13th October, 2015;
1. Ato Essien and the board of Capital Bank dished out ¢27.5m to a Board member to hype the business. The word in the report was "business promotion". While still under distress but having received the bail-out, the board approved 2. an expenditure of ¢2.6M and $50,000 on “re-branding.”
3. The board also “ratified” a proposal to increase the fees and benefits of directors, including two first and business class air tickets for all members of the board.  4. Not done, some 130million was transferred to Alltime Capital, a transfer that needed some explanation from the CEO Ato Essien who said the transfers were "strategic," and “highly classified information.”
The transfers were expected back into the bank by March 2016 - in five months, he said with additional assurance from the chairman, Dr. Mensa Otabil.
Alltime Capital, all this time, was however acting as an arranger for the transfer of the ¢130m to two other companies.
6. MC Management Services Ltd owned by one Dr. Tetteh Nettey and Abdul Rahman Abukari got ¢100m cedis and Pronto Construction and Supplies Ltd owned by one Paanii Tackie who got ¢20m.
7. Nordea Capital also got ¢65m of this Bank of Ghana aid money to Capital Bank.
Capital Bank sat back to watch their money working itself up and working itself back into their hands.
After that October 2015 decision, another group of businessmen got a licence to set up Sovereign bank in January 2016. A new bank had found favour with BoG regulations and its new shareholders would herald another dawn in banking.
The shareholders were however familiar names - Dr. Tetteh Nartey, Abdul Rahman Abukari whose company, MC Management Services Ltd had only some three months ago gotten ¢100m cedis of BoG's ¢610m to Capital bank.
This same company had also taken ¢30m from the ¢65m which Nordea Capital got from Capital Bank's BoG money. MC Management Services Ltd therefore had ¢130m of the ¢610m public money given to Capital bank.
All you need to set up a bank in 2015 was ¢120m. The Sovereign Bank was set up using ¢111.3m of investments from MC Management Services Ltd as capital.
Of this ¢ 111.3m, more than ¢46m ‘belonged’ to MC Management Services Ltd's owners - Dr. Tetteh Nartey and Abdul Rahman Abukari.
In the words of the report obtained by Joy FM, "the placement of ¢130m to Alltime Capital and ¢65m with Nordea Capital were a round tripping of liquidity support from Bank of Ghana to set up Sovereign Bank".
MC Management Services had invested ¢111.3m which was expected to mature in February 2016. Capital Bank was expecting their 130m by March 2016.
Some ¢30m of MC Management Services investment into Sovereign Bank ‘owned’ by Kwame Acheampong Kyei who was Board chairman of Sovereign Bank was moved out.
An exclusive financial autopsy report into the collapse of the Capital Bank has revealed that its majority shareholder used GH¢80m of depositors’ and public funds for his personal piggy bank.
Mr Ato Essien, who founded the bank, “flouted all banking and risk management rules” in the management of monies saved there by its customers.
The businessman personally invested those monies into businesses in breach of standard corporate governance practices. The report stated that depositors’ money was pushed into 10 business ventures in the country.
Some of the businesses established by Mr Essien using depositors’ monies are Ocean Spring Mineral Water, Breitling Services, Gye Nyame Realty Ltd, Capital and More Co. Ltd, Accent Financial Services Ltd, Life Assurance Ltd and Capital Africa Group.
They also invested in companies where Mr Essien has links, including Nordea Capital, Commerz Savings and Loans and the now defunct Sovereign Bank. Capital Bank also invested in Zimbabwe with First Capital Plus LLC, Gye Nyame Resources LLC and Bill Minerals LLC.
There was enough to sprinkle some more funds into Essien Swiss International Capital Holdings (ESICH).
The report also said BoG was in a position to stop Capital Bank from destroying itself through its “poor credit management, poor corporate governance, terminal decline of financial performance and insolvency”.
The rest of the money was used to set up the Sovereign Bank. “Funds raised through the commercial paper issuance by MC Management Services Limited and Breitling Services were used as capitalisation for the establishment of the Sovereign Bank Limited.
Capital Bank shareholders had only ¢23.3m — less than 50 per cent of the ¢60m capital requirement. In their defence, they also produced evidence to show they had ¢51.5m illiquid investment — basically money that one could see but could not touch.
After all these useless and reckless expenditures, Ato Essien then blames Ken Ofori Atta for the collapse of capital bank.
All the noise of Ato Essien is targeted at winning public sympathy because he will be prosecuted soon due to his bank fraud.
To conclude with, I will like to make this analogy, “if u go to a garage to buy a car and u don’t get to buy the car and let say the car crushes, can the person who asked for it be held liable? This is funny isn’t it?
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