OSP Reveals Its Behind-the-Scenes Role in Getting Ex-Goldman Sachs Banker Convicted in the US

Asante Kwaku Berko

On August 6, 2026, a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, convicted Asante Kwaku Berko a dual Ghanaian-American citizen, former Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), and a former Executive Director in Goldman Sachs' Investment Banking Division of conspiring to pay and paying more than $1 million in bribes to Ghanaian government officials. The scheme ran between 2014 and 2017, according to prosecutors, and was designed to secure a power purchase agreement for a coal/gas plant development between Ghana and Aksa Enerji Uretim A.S., a Turkish energy company that was also a Goldman Sachs client.

According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission's earlier disclosures on the case, the bribe payments were disguised as consultancy fees and routed through intermediary firms to obscure their true purpose and were partly laundered through the United States. Berko faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, with sentencing scheduled for November 10, 2026.

OSP release on Monday 10th August 2026

In a public notice issued Monday, August 10, the OSP confirmed it had provided investigation and evidentiary assistance to the FBI throughout the case, working through Ghana's established mutual legal assistance framework the formal channel that allows law enforcement agencies in different countries to share evidence and cooperate on cross-border investigations.

Crucially, the OSP said this support was explicitly acknowledged by the US Department of Justice as providing "significant assistance to this prosecution." FBI Assistant Director in Charge Barnacle separately thanked several partners in the case, including the UK's Office of International Affairs, the U.S. Marshals Service, and INTERPOL, underscoring how genuinely international the investigation was.

The OSP described its role as having unfolded "behind the scenes" — meaning Ghanaian authorities were quietly supplying evidence and investigative support long before the case became public, with the conviction now serving as the first real public confirmation of that cooperation.

Deputy Attorney General Justice Srem-Sai

This part of the story is very much still unfolding. Ghana's Deputy Attorney-General, Dr Justice Srem-Sai, has said his office is actively engaging US counterparts to pursue accountability for Ghanaian officials named in connection with the bribery scheme. Separate reporting has identified several sitting MPs and a former Cabinet minister as individuals allegedly implicated in the underlying scandal, though importantly being named in connection with a case is not the same as being charged, and nothing in current reporting confirms criminal charges against any specific Ghanaian official at this stage.

Beyond the individual conviction, the OSP is framing this case as proof of concept for a tool it doesn't get to showcase often: mutual legal assistance. Cross-border corruption cases are notoriously hard to prosecute precisely because evidence, witnesses, and money trails span multiple jurisdictions with different legal systems. The OSP's statement leaned into that point directly, calling the outcome "a testament to the importance of mutual legal assistance" in fighting corruption that crosses national borders.