Ofori-Atta, Keli Gadzekpo, Deny Covetous Moves Against Collapsed Capital Bank

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, and his business partner, Keli Gadzekpo, have scrambled a response to revelations by the owner of the collapsed Capital Bank, William Ato Essien, that they had made covetous advances at the bank in 2016.
A release by Acquah Samposn and Associates, lawyers for the two, who are co-founders and owners of Data bank and Enterprise Group, described Mr. Ato Essien’s revelation as sensational falsehood.
“Mr. William Ato Essien’s sensationalist attack on Messrs. Keli Gadzekpo and Ken Ofori-Atta is false, unnecessary and diversionary,” the statement said.
According to the statement, the Finance Minister and his business partner, Mr. Gadzekpo, who is also a Board Member of the Bank of Ghana, never approached the Capital Bank owner with a request to buy it out as Mr. Essien had claimed on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana.
“We wish to place on record that neither Mr. Keli Gadzekpo nor Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta communicated to Mr. William Ato Essien an intention to acquire Capital Bank in 2016 as claimed by Mr. William Ato Essien. The claim by Mr. William Ato Essien against the two founders of Databank, a reputable Investment Bank, is plainly false, malicious and disingenuous.
”In any event, it may be worth stressing that an expression of interest, prior to examining the books of a Bank, cannot be stretched to mean or even imply an endorsement or confirmation that Capital Bank at that material time had a clean bill of health,” the statement said.
It however, did not threaten to sue over the claims by Mr. Ato Essien.
On Thursday, September 26, Mr. William Ato Essien, founder of Capital Bank had appeared on Good Evening Ghana and poured his heart out to Paul Adom Otchere, show host.
Among others, he had revealed how efforts by him to keep the bank on its toes were deliberately ignored by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) which appeared in a hurry to collapse the bank.
While the BoG was at it, he revealed, a skewed narrative had also developed about issues with the bank as he became the subject of accusations that he was milking his own bank dry.
However, the biggest of the revelations was that the current Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, and his business partner, current Board Member of the BoG, Keli Gadzekpo, had approached him in 2016 and asked to buy the bank.
“If the bank was 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,” Ato-Essien said in the interview.
It was an aha moment for many observers as it reinforced speculations that the Finance Minister had deliberately overseen the collapse of Ghanaian banks, especially those belonging to political opponents, and also those belonging to people that Ken Ofori-Atta wants to edge out the banking space.
However, Mr. Ofori-Atta, through his lawyers, has denied the implicit accusation in the revelation.
“Our Clients reject and condemn the defamatory remarks and suggestions purporting to link our Clients in a negative way with the Banking sector clean up process that was decided, implemented, led and managed by the Bank of Ghana.
”The role of the Ministry of Finance in the entire exercise was/is, primarily, focused on how to: (a) provide financial assistance within the country’s limited fiscal space to protect the funds of depositors; and (b) build stronger, healthier and internationally competitive Ghanaian-owned Banks.
“It must also be underlined that the Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, was/is not responsible for the events and/or decisions that led to the unfortunate collapse of any Bank in Ghana. His responsibility as Finance Minister was/is to manage the national economy and, more particularly the impact of such a major crisis – which commenced prior to the appointment of Mr Ken Ofori-Atta as Finance Minister,” the statement said.