The Court of Appeal has granted GH₵10 million bail, with two sureties, to William Ato Essien, the founder of the defunct Capital Bank, as he seeks to appeal his 15-year prison term for causing financial loss to the state.
Essien, who served as the Managing Director of Capital Bank, was convicted in October 2023 after failing to fulfill the terms of a plea bargain agreement brokered by the then-Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame.
The agreement allowed him to avoid a custodial sentence by repaying the state GH¢90 million in three instalments.
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Under the arrangement, Essien was required to make payments as follows; an initial sum by April 28, 2023, a second by August 31, 2023, and a final installment by December 15, 2023.
Though he paid GH¢30 million in December 2022, he defaulted on the subsequent payments.
At the time of sentencing, Justice Kyei Baffour noted that Essien had managed to pay only GH¢7 million of the outstanding GH¢40 million due under the agreement. As a result, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour.