The United States of America’s Security and Exchange Commission (US SEC) has found a former boss of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Mr. Asante Berko guilty of facilitating bribes running into 4.5 millions of dollars which were paid to some Ghanaian government officials to aid the award of a power contract. He was subsequently slapped with a penalty.

In the suit, which was filed in Brooklyn federal court, the US SEC asked Mr. Berko to pay fines and give back any compensation he earned through the scheme.

Mr. Asante Berko, who was also a former banker at Goldman Sachs Group Inc will pay a penalty amounting to $329,000 to resolve the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s case without admitting or denying the regulator’s allegations, according to court filings.

Meanwhile, the penalty represents what the US regulators say are the net profits he gained as a result of the alleged bribery scheme, plus interest.

The penalty agreed upon by the US SEC and Mr. Berko on Friday June 25, 2021 represents a significant step back from what the regulator said should be imposed at the time its civil lawsuit was filed.

Moreover, in the complaint filed in 2020, the SEC had said that the former Goldman banker should pay a civil penalty, along with a disgorgement of gains from the alleged scheme and interest. The settlement reached however, didn’t include a civil penalty.

However, his Lawyer, Carl Loewenson Jr., a partner at the law firm Morrison & Foerster LLP., commenting on the ruling said “Mr. Berko is pleased to put this matter behind him”.

The Fact of the Matter

It will be recalled that on Monday, April 13, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Mr. Berko, on ground that he helped pass millions of dollars in bribes to be paid to government officials in Ghana to help a client win an electrical power-plant contract, U.S. regulators said in a civil lawsuit.

More so, the US Security and Exchange Commission alleged that the banker arranged for an unnamed Turkish energy company to funnel between $3 million and $4.5 million to a Ghana-based company that intended to use the funds to bribe government officials who could approve the company’s plans to build a power plant.

However, person with knowledge of the case said the company involved was Turkish energy company, Aksa Energy.

The US SEC said in a complaint filed in New York that Mr Berko “took deliberate measures to prevent his employer from detecting bribery schemes and that the bank he worked for is not facing any charges.”

Mr Berko, also facilitated payments of more than $200,000 in bribes to other government officials and personally paid more than $60,000 to members of the Ghanaian government and other officials, the US SEC said.

The government officials, along with the companies, are not named in the court documents but the SEC suit says that the local company allegedly made the payments to government officials.