Brooklyn banker charged with money laundering

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — U.S. ATTORNEY BREON Peace announced on Tuesday that a former U.S. bank executive director and dual U.S.-Ghanaian citizen, Asante Kwaku Berko, was extradited from the U.K. on Monday and arraigned in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday for bribing Ghanaian officials and laundering the payments in the U.S. Between 2014 and 2017. Berko allegedly conspired with others to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in order to win the unnamed bank’s client, a Turkish energy company, a valuable contract to construct a power plant in Ghana. Prosecutors allege that payments for the scheme were laundered through U.S. and foreign accounts, including several in Berko’s name, and the conspirators exchanged detailed emails regarding bribes paid to various individuals, including $20,000 to the “MoP Girls,” who were with the Ghanaian Ministry of Power, and $5,000 each to several Ghanaian officials.

If convicted, Berko faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for conspiring to commit money laundering and five years in prison for each count of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and conspiring to violate the FCPA.

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