Prosecution of directors of UT, Beige, Unibank, other failed banks ongoing – Deputy A-G

Deputy Attorney-General (A-G), Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, has noted that prosecutions of directors of financial institutions that were shut down by the Bank of Ghana during the clean-up exercise were ongoing.

He said if the accused were willing to refund the monies lost, the court shall abide by Section 35 for an agreement to avoid jail term.

Mr Tuah-Yeboah stated that the prosecution process aimed at serving justice and bringing perpetrators to book.

His comment comes after the Chief Executive Officer of defunct Capital Bank, William Ato Essien, was jailed for 15 years with hard labour after defaulting his payment agreement.

Speaking in an interview with TV3, the Deputy Attorney-General said, "As we speak, we have other cases in court, Beige bank is in court, we are hearing the matter. UT is also in court, we have other banks, like Duffuor’s bank (Unibank) all in court, and we are doing them one after the other."

“If the money that we have lost they are ready to refund the money we will look at section 35 and go by that and we can have the same agreement," he stated.

Alfred Tuah-Yeboah further said, “Our preoccupation is to ensure that justice is done. This can be done either we get the money or if we don’t get we go to the full hog and get the judgment and if they are convicted so be it. So if any of the others facing trial are of the opinion that they want to use section 34, nobody stops them because it is not limited to Ato Essien, it is limited to all other people but we are still prosecuting our cases in court.”

It would be recalled that the Bank of Ghana on August 14, 2017, revoked the license of Capital Bank due to insolvency.

UT Bank, Unibank, and Biege Bank also had their license revoked by the central bank during the financial sector clean-up exercise that took place from 2017 to 2019.

In a bid to restore confidence in the banking and specialized deposit-taking sector, the Bank of Ghana embarked on a clean-up exercise in August 2017.

Spending over GH¢20 billion, the Central Bank’s action was to resolve insolvent financial institutions whose continued existence posed risks to the interest of depositors.

SA/NOQ

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