Big shots hit for bribery
• Leading Senegal politician and top Hong Kong official charged in US for money laundering
The US has charged a former Senegalese foreign minister and a former top Hong Kong government official with links to a Chinese energy conglomerate with bribing high-level officials in Chad and Uganda in exchange for contracts.
Chi Ping Patrick Ho of Hong Kong and Cheikh Gadio were charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, international money laundering and conspiracy, the US justice department said in a statement.
It said Gadio, a former foreign minister of Senegal, was arrested in New York on Friday. It added that Ho, a former Hong Kong home affairs secretary who heads a nongovernmental organisation based in Hong Kong and Virginia, was arrested on Saturday.
“Wiring almost a million dollars through New York’s banking system in furtherance of their corrupt schemes, the defendants allegedly sought to generate business through bribes paid to the president of Chad and the Ugandan foreign minister,” Joon Kim, acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, was quoted as saying in the statement.
Chad’s president since 1990 has been Idriss Deby.
The Ugandan foreign minister, Sam Kutesa, served as the president of the UN General Assembly in 2014 and 2015. No one could be reached at the embassies of Chad and Uganda in Washington late on Monday.
The US justice department said the case against Ho involved two bribery schemes to pay high-level officials of Chad and Uganda in exchange for business advantages for a Shanghai-headquartered, multibillion-dollar energy company.
This energy company funded a nongovernment organisation headed by Ho and based in Hong Kong and Virginia, the statement said, without naming the Shanghai company or the organisation. Ho is the secretary-general of the Hong Kong-based China Energy Fund Committee, a mainland-backed think tank that describes itself as a charitable organisation.
The China Energy Fund Committee is fully funded by CEFC China Energy, a Shanghai-based private conglomerate, according to the think tank’s website.
The organisation did not respond to an e-mail requesting comment. CEFC China Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CEFC has been a key player in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative, which aims to bolster China’s global leadership ambitions by building infrastructure and trade links between Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular news briefing on Tuesday that he was not aware of the specific details of the case.
“I want to emphasise that the Chinese government consistently requires Chinese companies abroad to operate lawfully and abide by local laws and regulations,” he said.
Ho’s attorney, Ed Kim, declined to comment. Bob Baum of Federal Defenders, who represented Gadio for the bail argument, did not respond to a request for comment.
Ho was ordered detained after appearing in court on Monday, the justice department statement said.
It said Gadio appeared before a judge on Saturday and was being held until he could meet the conditions of a $1m bond, according to court records.
The justice department said a $2m bribe was paid to Chad’s president, who then provided the company with an opportunity to obtain oil rights in Chad without inviting international competition.
The department said in the statement that Gadio was the go-between and was paid $400,000 by Ho via wire transfers through New York.
The justice department accused Ho of being involved with bribes and promises of future benefits to Uganda’s foreign minister in exchange for help in obtaining business advantages for the Chinese company.