The MD of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Asante Berko, has responded to claims he paid off government authorities and MPs to pick up endorsement for a power plant project.
The ex-Goldman financier has been refered to in a common suit by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US for the supposed pay-offs.
The US SEC cases in its claim documented on Monday that, Asante Berko, a previous official at the Goldman’s London auxiliary, encouraged up to $4.5million to assist a Turkish organization with winning an agreement for a power plant.
The said agreement was endorsed in 2015, during Ghana’s incessant force emergency.
Mr. Berko, because of the charges which have gotten huge media inclusion, said in a discharge Tuesday that the SEC’s cases are “bogus.”
“I state categorically that I have not paid any bribes to government officials, Members of Parliament nor any officials of Parliament.
“I have had no contact with Members of Parliament nor officials of Parliament, regarding the approval of this transaction,” he wrote in the statement.
Mr. Berko revelead that, he “was indeed an employee of Goldman Sachs up until December 2016…and was part of the Goldman Sachs team that was to arrange the financing for this power transaction on behalf of the Turkish IPP.”
He added that the SEC’s proceedings have come as a complete surprise to him “as the SEC in May 2017, interviewed me extensively.”
Mr. Berko says he has instructed his lawyers to respond to the lawsuit. “I intend to contest the proceedings to clear my good name,” added the TOR boss.