Reported by Jonathan Ames

US justice officials — led by Breon Peace, a US attorney for the eastern district of New York, and Nicole Argentieri, a deputy assistant attorney-general — said that over three years, Berko was part a team at the bank that was responsible for securing and managing a deal between its client, a Turkish energy company, and the government in Accra to provide finance and build a power plant in Ghana. 

It is alleged that Berko was part of a group that offered and paid more than $70,000 in bribes to government officials in exchange for assistance in ensuring that the Turkish company succeeded in winning the bid to build and operate the plant.

The Americans have charged Berko with two counts of breaching the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and one of conspiring to commit money laundering.

If convicted, the former banker faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for conspiring to launder cash and five years in jail for each count of violating the corrupt practices legislation. 

The charges come four years after the US’s financial watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission, brought similar charges against Berko and in 2021 ordered him to repay nearly $330,000 in “ill-gotten gains, including interest”.

Read full report: https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/companies/article/goldman-sachs-banker-extradited-to-us-over-bribery-charges-f2v27q9tw