Former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, has indicated that the government of Ghana started an investigation into the AKSA bribery scandal involving the former Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery, Asante Berko, who has now been convicted in the United States (US).

In a write-up sighted by GhanaWeb, on August 11, 2026, Amidu, a former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, shared details of the said investigation, which was initiated when he was the Special Prosecutor.

According to him, the then President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, referred the matter to him for investigation when Asante Berko was charged in the US.

“Asante K. Berko was appointed the MD for TOR by the NPP government of Nana Akufo-Addo to take effect from January 1, 2020. He resigned from TOR on April 15, 2020, following the US-SEC civil suit already referred to herein, without the Nana Akufo-Addo government, which accepted his resignation, referring him to the OSP for investigation and possible prosecution, as it had done when it wanted the blood of John Mahama in the Airbus SE-Ghana bribery scandal. The modus operandi in this AKSA and the Airbus cases are similar,” Amidu wrote.

Amidu stated that after he received the directive from the President, he wrote a letter to his deputy ordering the Head of Investigation at the OSP to start an investigation into the matter.

“This Office has an obligation to open investigations into the allegations of the suspected commission of corruption and corruption-related offences against Asante K. Berko and his accomplices in Ghana in accordance with its mandate. The case appears complex and the interests involved are weighty and varied, but it is our duty to perform our anti-corruption duty to this Republic.

“The Head of Investigation should accordingly open a preliminary investigation immediately into the allegations of bribery and corruption contained in the above SEC suit against Asante K. Berko and his cohorts under the supervision of the Deputy Special Prosecutor and the Chief State Attorney,” parts of the said letter which was embedded into the statement read.

He said that the OSP investigation into the matter was being done with the collaboration of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the US.

He indicated that the investigation continued after he left office and identified some entities and individuals who had been implicated.

“The OSP started investigations into this case in April 2020 and was in collaboration with the FBI office in Ghana before I resigned from my office in November 2020 as the Special Prosecutor. During the same period, the OSP was also investigating the Airbus SE Bribery scandal, which had been referred to it by President Akufo-Addo and the Agyapa Royalty Transaction case.

“The OSP investigation into the Asante Berko-AKSA-Ghana Bribery deal continued under the Deputy Special Prosecutor and was inherited by the current Special Prosecutor, only to disappear later from the published list of cases under investigation. No professional investigator and prosecutor could have missed the identities of the persons implicated in the suspected crimes from the portion of the US-SEC civil complaint against Asante Berko dealing with ‘Related Entities and Individuals’ and, in particular, from paragraphs 24 to 30, which included the politically exposed person and the GoG public officials,” he said.

He listed some of the individuals and entities implicated as follows:

1. Intermediary Company - a privately owned Ghanaian company that purports to provide consulting and other services for energy development projects in Ghana. 25. “Intermediary Senior Executive” is a Ghanaian citizen and a senior executive of the Intermediary Company.

2. Intermediary Executive - a Ghanaian citizen and an executive officer of the Intermediary Company who reported to the Intermediary Senior Executive.

3. Intermediary Employee 1 - a Ghanaian citizen and an employee of the Intermediary Company who reported to the Intermediary Senior Executive and the Intermediary Executive.

4. Politically Exposed Person or PEP - may be a controlling person of the Intermediary Company who was an immediate family member of one of the most senior officials of Ghana at the time.

5. Government Official 1 - a high-ranking government official in Ghana who had the ability to influence the award of the Power Plant Project to the Energy Company and who, along with Government Official 2, participated in an intra-governmental agency group to assess the appropriate fee, or tariffs, to be paid to energy companies in connection with power plant projects in Ghana.

6. Government Official 2 - a government official in Ghana who assisted Government Official 1 for the Power Plant Project.

'Stop deceiving Ghanaians!' - Martin Amidu demands release of OSP-AKSA bribery deal report

Amidu's remarks come after Deputy Attorney General, Justice Srem Sai, disclosed that Attorney General, Dominic Ayine, was engaging his US counterparts following the conviction of the former Goldman Sachs executive, Asante Kwaku Berko, concerning the AKSA power project in Ghana, in which, according to US prosecutors, the businessman participated in a scheme involving more than US$1 million in payments to Ghanaian officials to secure approvals for the project.

Berko, a former Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and a dual US-Ghanaian citizen, was found guilty by a federal jury in New York of conspiring to violate the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), violating the FCPA, and conspiring to commit money laundering.

Details surrounding the conviction of Asante Kwaku Berko, who also served as the former Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery, have revealed that several Ghanaian officials allegedly received bribes totalling over $1 million to facilitate a power plant deal during Ghana's power crisis in 2014 and 2015.

According to US court documents, several Ghanaian officials were allegedly bribed to facilitate the Turkish-based company's bid to secure the power plant project. The alleged recipients included government officials and Members of Parliament.

Read Amidu's full statement below:



BAI/VPO

Your Dream Property Is Just a Few Clicks Away – GhanaWeb Real Estate