The United States sued Asante Berko, a former Executive Director at Goldman Sachs International, and this week the case finally reaches a jury. Trial opened before Judge Diane Gujarati in the Eastern District of New York, believed to be the 27th FCPA jury trial in the statute’s nearly 50-year history.
Berko is charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a substantive FCPA violation, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The DOJ alleges that between December 2014 and March 2017, Berko conspired with Ghanaian officials and others to secure government approvals for a power plant that Aksa Enerji, a Turkish energy company and Goldman client, was building in Ghana, with bribe payments allegedly laundered through U.S. bank accounts.
This isn’t Berko’s first brush with this conduct. The SEC charged him civilly in 2020, and in mid-2021 he settled without admitting or denying the allegations, paying $329,163.92 in disgorgement and prejudgment interest and accepting a permanent injunction against future FCPA violations.
That settlement didn’t end it. In August 2020 a sealed six-count indictment charged the same core conduct criminally, and Berko was arrested in London in late 2022, then extradited in July 2024. The SEC’s civil resolution was never the last word.
Only 27 FCPA cases have gone to a jury since 1977. Most defendants plead or settle, so a trial verdict here will be closely read for how a federal jury weighs bribery-through-intermediary evidence. Berko is represented by WilmerHale’s Robert Boone and Amanda Masselam Strachan. No verdict date has been set.
— James Okafor