Ecobank rejects $26.6m awards to ex-CEO

•Board meets next week to consider options

ECOBANK Transnational Incorporated (ETI), parent company of the Ecobank Group, may appeal against recent court decisions which awarded $ 26.6 million in favour of its dismissed former Chief Executive Officer, Thierry Tanoh.

  The awards were made against ETI by two separate court decisions. A Togolese labour court first granted Tanoh $11.6 million for wrongful dismissal from office, while an Ivorian commercial court awarded $15 million in his favour for “defamation”. 

  Tanoh, an Ivorian, was removed from office over certain infractions leveled against him while in office.

   Already, the pan-African financial conglomerate has scheduled a special meeting of its board of directors against next week to deliberate on the development.

  In a statement signed by ETI’s Group Head, Corporate Communications, Richard Uku, the pan-African financial institution described the courts’ verdicts as “disappointing but not surprising.”

  According to the statement, “ETI does not accept the legitimacy of the Togolese court’s ruling because the court does not have legal jurisdiction over Mr Tanoh’s employment contract. 

  “Mr Tanoh signed this contract before assumption of his post as Ecobank Group CEO in July 2012 in the full knowledge that it was governed by English law. The contract expressly provides that all disputes shall be settled by international arbitration in London by an arbitrator appointed by the President of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. 

  “The contract grants exclusive jurisdiction to the English courts in relevant matters. Mr Tanoh, an Ivorian national with permanent residence in the United States during his tenure as ETI Group CEO, rejected these express provisions of his contract, preferring instead to pursue litigation in a Togolese court for reasons best known to him.

  “This is the second time in as many months that Mr Tanoh has sought to extract substantial sums of money from Ecobank on claims which he knows would not stand up in most courts of law. Last month, an Ivorian commercial court, before which he filed a civil suit against ETI, Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and Dr Daniel Matjila for ‘defamation,’ ruled in his favour in the amount of $15 million. This decision is equally being appealed.”

  ETI stressed its resolve to stand firm on the decision to relieve Tanoh of his responsibilities and “rejects the excessive sums of money that he is demanding in local courts in Togo and Cote d’Ivoire.”

  The statement added that Tanoh’s removal from office “was fully justifiable ”pointing out that “many of ETI’s founders, shareholders, directors and a number of Ecobank’s regulatory authorities were resolute in their calls for Mr Tanoh to step down. This was after due consideration of an overwhelming amount of compelling material, which showed that his dismissal was clearly warranted.

  “ETI has lodged a criminal complaint against Mr Tanoh for taking away all official files that he handled as Group CEO of Ecobank, and for deleting all electronic files from the official computers that he used.

  “These unbelievable decisions by the local courts in Cote d’Ivoire and Togo amount to self- inflicting damage, for they send unambiguously negative signals to the business community. They are a deterrent to local and potential foreign direct investment in both countries. They raise serious questions for any business entity about how independent or objective a ruling they could obtain in potential litigation. The ETI Board will hold a special meeting next week to consider its options in the wake of these decisions.

 “ETI is confident that it will win its appeal of this judgment, and it continues to keep its focus on its most fundamental priorities, which include the business of banking, doing well by its staff, its customers and its shareholders.”