Martin Amidu drops 'bombshell' on AKSA bribery deal

Ghana’s former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, has expressed grave doubts about Ghana’s ability to produce meaningful criminal evidence from any investigation into the Asante Berko-AKSA bribery scandal, arguing that the case risks ending without prosecutions.

In a strongly worded article dated August 18, 2026, Amidu said he expected “nothing useful by way of evidential results” from a Ghanaian investigation into the alleged corruption, corruption-related offences and money laundering connected to the AKSA deal.

He believes any evidence uncovered in Ghana could be suppressed.

“I sincerely believe and conclude from the bottom of my heart that nothing useful by way of evidential results would come out of any Ghanaian investigation into the Asante-AKSA-Ghana corruption, corruption-related and other criminal offences such as money laundering deals that were consummated between 2014 and 2017, leading to the conviction of the principal facilitator of the corruption transactions, Asante Kwaku Berko, by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on August 6, 2026. The evidence will be suppressed,” he stated.

His comments follow the conviction of Asante Kwaku Berko by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on August 6, 2026.

Amidu argued that the government should not attempt to draw parallels between the bribery scandal and subsequent administrations, insisting that the alleged bribery occurred in 2016.

According to him, the case for which Berko was convicted in the United States relates specifically to the alleged bribery and corruption of public officials during the John Mahama administration between 2014 and early 2017.

“The Asante Berko-AKSA-Ghana bribery deal for which Asante Berko was convicted in the US on August 6, 2026, relates only to the bribery and corruption of public officials of the John Mahama government between 2014 and the early part of 2017, after Berko had resigned from Goldman Sachs in December 2016 to enable investigations into his conduct,” he said.

“It had nothing to do with bribery and corruption during Nana Akufo-Addo’s government. Of course, the corruption transaction involving AKSA continued, as some payments were made in July 2018, according to the investigation by the OSP.”

Amidu, however, alleged that there was a “concerted attempt” by the government to portray Berko’s US conviction as relating to activities spanning both the Mahama and Akufo-Addo administrations.

“The AKSA bribery might have continued on a bipartisan basis in Parliament and under the Nana Akufo-Addo government and continues to date, as AKSA has become an institution in Ghana,” he stated.

He warned that any attempt to extend Berko’s conviction to criminal activities beyond December 2016, when he resigned from Goldman Sachs amid internal investigations into his conduct, could amount to an attempt to establish what he described as “equalization.”

“But any attempt to extend the conviction of Asante Berko as involving criminal activities beyond December 2016, when he resigned from Goldman Sachs for internal investigations into his misconduct, will be an attempt to establish equalization, as the government did in 2012 with the Justice Appau Commission of Enquiry,” Amidu argued.