Ecobank Transnational’s Ivory Coast unit must pay former chief executive Thierry Tanoh about $14 million (R168m) after the lender failed to obey a judgment in January, according to Tanoh’s lawyer.
The bank was fined 8.2 billion CFA francs (R165m) by a commercial court in Abidjan, Soualiho Diomande, Tanoh’s attorney, said yesterday. The chamber found that the lender had paid dividends from accounts seized after it lost a defamation case against Tanoh.
A spokesman for Ecobank said it was appealing the decision. A London court ordered Tanoh to stop pursuing the case in Ivory Coast and a wrongful-termination one in Togo last month. Tanoh’s employment contract is based on British law and, therefore, the two West African courts don’t have jurisdiction. Tanoh left the bank more than a year ago.
Bloomberg