I didn’t collapse Capital Bank — Pastor Mensah Otabil[/caption] The General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Pastor Mensa Otabil, has denied claims that he acted in a manner that led to the collapse of Capital Bank in his defense filed at the Commercial Division of the Accra High Court. Pastor Otabil, who was the Board Chairman of the bank, refuted assertions by the receivers of the bank that he had connived with other directors and shareholders of the bank to mismanage funds at the bank. The statement of defense, signed by his lawyer, Mr. Yonny Kulendi, and which is a response to a suit filed by the receivers, also refuted claims that Pastor Otabil and the board that he chaired breached banking, company law or any other related laws during their tenure. “The defendant (Otabil) was appointed Chairman of the board in 2009 and in all of his tenure as a Director and Chairman of the Board, he did not apply for, neither was he offered, nor did he receive any loan, overdraft or any credit facility from the plaintiff (defunct Capital Bank). “The board, under his chairmanship, acted diligently, faithfully and in the best interest of the plaintiff and, therefore, he did not, as Director, use or allow to be used by any director or shareholder related entities to siphon funds belonging to the plaintiff,’’ it said. Receivers’ suit On August 14, 2017, the licenses of the Capital Bank and the UT Bank were revoked by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) after the BoG had declared them insolvent. The BoG allowed the state-owned bank, the GCB Bank, to acquire the two banks in order to protect depositors’ funds and also enable them to stay afloat. The assets of the banks were then placed in receivership. Following the revocation, on November 11, 2018, receivers of the bank — Mr. Vish Ashiagbor and Mr. Eric Nipah, both of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) — sued Pastor Otabil, the ICGC and 13 other shareholders and directors at the Commercial Division of the Accra High Court. The plaintiffs accused the 15 defendants of mismanaging about GH¢837 million in the coffers of the bank and a GH¢620 million liquidity support given to the bank by the BoG. The receivers wanted to use the legal action to recover all the money that they claimed the defendants owed the bank. Among other accusations, the plaintiffs accused the defendants of allocating onto themselves loans amounting to about GH¢482 million, which they had refused to repay, and the use of a non-existent GH¢52.3 million investment certificate to top up the capital of the bank to obtain a universal banking license from the BoG. They further claimed that one of the defendants, Mr. William Ato Essien, who was the founder of the bank, transferred GH¢130 million of the BoG liquidity support into his personal company and also used GH¢27.5 million for what was described as ‘protocol payments’. The receivers alleged that it was those ‘illegal’ transfers that Mr. Essien used to establish another bank known as the Sovereign Bank. SOURCE: GRAPHIC ONLINE https://ameyawdebrah.com/national-cathedral-fundraising-dinner-we-are-selling-a-chair-for-1000-a-table-for-10000-archbishop-duncan-williams/]]>