TOR MD won’t be remanded for his role in bribing gov't oficials, MPs – Prof. Azar laments

Lawyer and Professor of Accounting, Stephen Kweku Asare, also known as Professor Azar has reacted to the news of a charge by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (US SEC) against the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) boss, Asante Berko for allegedly ‘orchestrating a bribery scheme’.

According to him, the accused, Asante Berko will not be remanded for his role in facilitating a US$4.5M bribe payments to Ghanaian government officials whereas the poor guy who stole cocoyam, will rather be remanded per the practice of our laws.

Lawyer Kweku Asare in a Facebook post on Monday, April 13 also questioned if any due diligence was made before the appointment of Asante Berko as the Managing Director of TOR.

On Monday, April 13, the US Securities and Exchange Commission in a statement said Asante Berko, who was a former employee at Goldman Sachs, arranged bribes for a Turkish energy company to funnel the money to a Ghana-based intermediary, which was then paid the government officials.

Asante Berko is alleged to have arranged for the energy company to funnel between US$3 million to US$4.5 million to the intermediary company where he paid more than US$200,000 in bribes to various other government officials for approving a Power Plant Project.

Adding, he personally also paid more than US$60,000 to members of Ghana’s parliament to gain further approval for the project.

US SEC says Asante Berko took deliberate measures to prevent his employer from detecting the bribery scheme and is said to be in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

See Professor Kweku Azar’s reaction below;