Asante Kwaku Berko
The Attorney General (AG) is working with United States authorities to initiate criminal proceedings against former government officials and Members of Parliament who benefited from an over $1 million bribery scheme hatched by convicted former Managing Director of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Asante Kwaku Berko in the US.
A federal jury in Brooklyn found Berko guilty of charges relating to paying more than $1 million in bribes to Ghanaian government officials in connection with the development of a power plant in Ghana.
Court documents indicate how some beneficiaries of the illicit money referred to the expected bribe as “holy rains” and were expecting it “sooner rather than later.”
Berko, a US-Ghanaian dual citizen, was found guilty on all counts of an indictment charging him with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), violating the FCPA, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The verdict followed a nine-day trial before United States District Judge Diane Gujarati, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement.
Several government officials as well as Members of Parliament were said to have received various sums of monies in the form of bribes from Berko between 2014 and 2017 in connection with the development and financing of a power plant project expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in profits.
In the wake of the conviction, Deputy Attorney General, Dr. Justice Srem-Sai, disclosed on social media that his boss is “working with his United States counterparts to bring to book persons who are implicated in the bribery scheme related to the 2014-2017 power plant development contract between a Turkish energy company and the Government.”
Conviction
Berko, 52, faces up to 30 years in prison and has been remanded into lawful custody pending sentencing.
Court documents reveal that Berko and his co-conspirators paid and conspired to pay bribes to individuals at various levels of the Ghanaian government to ensure that Aksa Enerji Uretim A.S. (Aksa), a Turkish energy company and Goldman Sachs client, secured the contract to build and operate the power plant.
Prosecutors told the court that in April 2015, Berko and his co-conspirators discussed paying $1 million to Ghana’s Minister of Power, who was responsible for securing key approvals for the project, and a further $250,000 to the minister’s senior adviser.
Bribes were also paid to five Ghanaian officials during an all-expenses-paid trip to Turkey to inspect equipment for the proposed power plant.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) indicated that after the power plant agreement was ratified by the Ghanaian Parliament in July 2015, Berko and his co-conspirators exchanged detailed emails discussing additional bribe payments.
The Department said that in August 2015, the group discussed payments totalling $250,000 to various individuals, including $46,000 allegedly paid to members of the Ghanaian Parliament, who had ratified the agreement between Aksa and the Government of Ghana.
It further stated that the conspirators referred to one expected payment as “holy rain,” saying the recipient “would appreciate it sooner rather than later.”
According to prosecutors, Berko also sought to conceal the scheme from Goldman Sachs by misleading the firm’s compliance team responsible for reviewing the transaction.
Berko is said to have used his personal email account instead of his official Goldman Sachs email to discuss the project and the bribe payments, while directing his co-conspirators to do the same.
The DOJ further indicated that Berko and his associates concealed and laundered the illicit payments through shell companies, sham invoices, nominee account holders and cash withdrawals.
Payments linked to the scheme were routed through US and foreign bank accounts. Goldman Sachs eventually withdrew from the deal over corruption concerns.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak