SEC Charges Former Financial Services Executive With FCPA Violations

Washington D.C., April 13, 2020

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a former executive of a financial services company with orchestrating a bribery scheme to help a client to win a government contract to build and operate an electrical power plant in the Republic of Ghana in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

The SEC’s complaint alleges that Asante Berko, a former executive of a foreign-based subsidiary of a U.S. bank holding company, arranged for his firm’s client, a Turkish energy company, to funnel at least $2.5 million to a Ghana-based intermediary to pay illicit bribes to Ghanaian government officials in order to gain their approval of an electrical power plant project. The complaint further alleges that Berko helped the intermediary pay more than $200,000 in bribes to various other government officials, and Berko personally paid more than $60,000 to members of the Ghanaian parliament and other government officials. According to the complaint, Berko took deliberate measures to prevent his employer from detecting his bribery scheme, including misleading his employer’s compliance personnel about the true role and purpose of the intermediary company.

“As alleged in our complaint, Berko orchestrated a scheme to bribe high-level Ghanaian officials in pursuit of firm business and his own enrichment. Berko’s misconduct was egregious and individual accountability remains a key component to our FCPA enforcement efforts,” said Charles Cain, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s FCPA Unit. “The firm’s compliance personnel took appropriate steps to prevent the firm from participating in the transaction and it is not being charged.”

The SEC’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, charges Berko with violating the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA and federal securities laws. The SEC is seeking monetary penalties against Berko among other remedies.

https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2020-88

Senate delays expected return until May

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), after consulting with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), has announced the Senate will not reconvene in Washington sooner than May 4, two weeks later than the previously scheduled date.

“As the country continues working together to flatten the curve, following the advice of health experts, the full Senate is not expected to travel back to Washington D.C. sooner than Monday, May 4th,” McConnell said in a statement.

“All members will receive at least 24 hours’ notice if this changes. This bipartisan decision reflects consultation with Leader Schumer and my colleagues in Senate leadership,” he added.

The GOP leader warned, however, that funding for the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program “will run dry this week if we do not pass more money.”

He reiterated his request to add another $250 billion to the small-business lending program, without also adding money for hospitals and state governments as Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have demanded.

“Clean funding for worker pay in a crisis should not be controversial. I hope our Democratic colleagues will let Congress act this week. American workers deserve paychecks, not pink slips caused by political games,” McConnell said.

House Democratic leaders announced Monday that the House will not reconvene before the week of May 4 and that lawmakers will be given sufficient notice if they need to come back to Washington before then for emergency legislative action.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/492705-senate-delays-expected-return-until-may