SEC's ace team ready to drill former Tema refinery boss Asante Berko

摘要

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rostered five anticorruption heavyweights to lead its case against the former Tema Oil Refinery boss Asante Berko, whom it accuses of bribery during his time working for Goldman Sachs' London office. The complaint is filed with the court of the Eastern District of New York. The SEC alleges that between 2015 and 2016 Asante Berko accepted some $2m from Turkish firm Aksa Energi to help it win a contract to build a power plant in Ghana. It goes on to assert that Berko facilitated the payment of money to Ghanaian officials. The five SEC lawyers assigned to the case include Asita Obeyesekere and Paul G. Block, both members of its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) unit. in 2018, Block led a SEC probe into the activities of asset management firm Permal, a Legg Mason offshoot, in Libya. Permal dished out sweetners to several Libyan authorities in order to secure investments. This was ruled a FCPA violation and the firm was forced to pay $64m to resolve the SEC charge.