Ghanaians Seek Identities Of Officials Allegedly Bribed In AKSA Power Deal

Ghanaians are seeking to establish which public officials and lawmakers were allegedly paid more than $1 million in bribes in connection with a power plant deal between the government and Turkish energy company Aksa Enerji Uretim A.S., following the conviction in the United States of former Goldman Sachs banker Kwaku Asante Berko.

Berko, 52, was convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn of conspiring to violate the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), violating the FCPA and conspiring to commit money laundering in connection with the development and financing of the power plant in Ghana.

The case has renewed questions in Ghana about the identities of officials who allegedly received payments.

Social media users have linked a former power minister and a former chairman of parliament’s Mines and Energy Committee to the scheme, although the allegations circulating online do not by themselves establish that either man received a bribe.

According to U.S. court filings, Berko and his co-conspirators sought to pay more than $1 million to multiple Ghanaian government officials to secure approvals for the project.

Berko, a Ghanaian-American dual citizen and former executive director in Goldman Sachs’ investment banking division, was responsible for securing and managing a deal between Ghana and Aksa, a Goldman Sachs client, for the construction and financing of a power plant during Ghana’s energy crisis.

The case has also drawn renewed attention to the role of Ghana’s Ministry of Power, which was created in 2014 by then-President John Mahama as the country struggled with severe power shortages, known locally as “dumsor”.

Mahama appointed Kwabena Donkor as the first minister of the newly created ministry.

Donkor resigned in December 2015 as the power crisis persisted.

Alleged payments

According to the U.S. court filings, Berko and his co-conspirators established an entity called Ghana Consultancy Company to facilitate payments linked to the scheme.

The Turkish energy company transferred $500,000 to Ghana Consultancy Company through a Ghanaian bank on April 20, 2015, the filings say.

The documents say Berko and his co-conspirators subsequently arranged a trip to Turkey for officials from Ghana’s Ministry of Power, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission and Ghana Grid Company Ltd. to inspect equipment for the proposed plant.

An eight-member delegation travelled to Turkey, and each member was paid $5,000, according to an email exchange between Berko and his co-conspirators cited in the court filings.

The filings also say a Turkish holding company transferred $1 million to Ghana Consultancy Company on Sept. 8, 2016. Additional transfers were made to Berko’s Ghanaian bank account between Sept. 28 and Dec. 20, 2016, according to the documents.

Berko also received $500,000 from an account belonging to the Turkish energy company on Feb. 14, 2016, the filings say, about a month before his employment with Goldman Sachs ended.

The power plant became operational in 2017.

Payments to officials

Prosecutor Katherine Raut told the federal jury in Brooklyn during opening arguments that Berko and associates outside Goldman Sachs had conspired to pay more than $1 million in bribes to high-ranking Ghanaian government officials to secure approval for the development and financing of the plant.

According to evidence presented at trial, Berko and his co-conspirators discussed paying $1 million to Ghana’s minister of power in April 2015.

The minister was responsible for securing key approvals for the project, according to the prosecution.

They also discussed paying $250,000 to the minister’s senior adviser.

The prosecution said bribes were also paid to five Ghanaian officials during the trip to Turkey.

After Ghana’s parliament ratified the agreement with Aksa in July 2015, Berko and his co-conspirators exchanged emails discussing further payments, according to the court filings.

In August 2015, they discussed $250,000 in payments to various individuals, including $46,000 to members of parliament who had ratified the agreement, the filings say.

Berko personally made the $46,000 payment, according to the prosecution.

The co-conspirators also referred to an alleged recipient who was waiting for the “holy rain”, which they used as a reference to a bribe payment, the filings say.

Concealing the scheme

According to the prosecution, Berko concealed the alleged bribery scheme from Goldman Sachs’ compliance department, which was responsible for reviewing the transaction.

He used a personal email account rather than his Goldman Sachs account to discuss the deal and the alleged payments and instructed his co-conspirators to do the same, prosecutors said.

The court filings say Berko and his co-conspirators used shell companies, sham invoices, nominee account holders and cash withdrawals to conceal and launder payments.

Payments allegedly connected to the scheme were routed through U.S. and foreign bank accounts, according to the prosecution.

Goldman Sachs ultimately withdrew from the transaction because of corruption concerns.

Conviction

The verdict followed a nine-day trial before U.S. District Judge Diane Gujarati.

Berko has been remanded pending sentencing and faces up to 30 years in prison.

The verdict was announced by Joseph Nocella Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; A. Tysen Duva, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; and James C. Barnacle Jr., assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York field office.

“The defendant abused his access to high-level foreign government officials and his platform as an investment banker at a prestigious American firm to line his own pockets with millions of dollars,” Nocella said in a statement.

Duva said Berko had abused his position at a major U.S. investment bank by helping to bribe Ghanaian officials so that he and his co-conspirators, including senior executives at a Turkish company, could profit.

Barnacle said the verdict highlighted the importance of cooperation between U.S. and international law enforcement agencies.

Nocella also thanked British authorities, the U.K. National Central Bureau for INTERPOL, the U.S. Embassy in London, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs and the U.S. Marshals Service for assistance in securing Berko’s arrest and extradition.

The U.S. government’s case was handled by the Business and Securities Fraud Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Justice Department’s Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.

The prosecution team included Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jessica Weigel, Nick M. Axelrod and Tara McGrath, as well as Assistant Chief Katherine Raut and Senior Trial Attorney Katherine Nielsen.