The United States government has arrested an official connected with bribery scandals in Africa. The bribery scheme, according to agency report, was hatched in the halls of the United Nations (U.N) in New York and spanned several continents.
The report fingered Chi Ping Patrick Ho, Hong Kong’s former Home Secretary, and Cheikh Gadio, a one-time foreign minister of Senegal, to have plotted to bribe high-level African officials to secure business rights for a Shanghai-based energy and financial conglomerate.
The two men are charged with criminal bribery in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and international money laundering.
Idriss Deby, the long-time president of oil-rich Chad, and Sam Kutesa, a Ugandan foreign minister who served as president of the U.N. General Assembly from 2014 to 2015, were reported to be their targets.
According to a criminal complaint unsealed by U.S. prosecutors on Monday, Ho and Gadio engaged in a multi-year scheme to bribe Deby and Kutesa in exchange for “business advantages” for the energy company, a multibillion-dollar Chinese company that operates in the oil-and-gas and financial sectors.
Ho was arrested Saturday afternoon and appeared before a federal magistrate Monday, the Justice Department announced Monday.
Gadio, who served as foreign minister of Senegal from 2002 to 2009, was arrested in New York on Friday afternoon and presented to a federal magistrate Saturday. Both remain in federal custody.
The two men are charged with criminal bribery in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and international money laundering.
The FCPA bars companies from bribing foreign officials to gain a business advantage. Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco said the scheme “involved bribes at the highest levels of two nations.”
“Their bribes and corrupt acts hurt our economy and undermine confidence in the free marketplace,” Blanco said in a statement.
According to the complaint, Ho and Gadio began plotting in 2014 when they met at the United Nations in New York.
At the time, Gadio ran a consulting firm while Ho headed a non-profit that received funding by the energy company.
….As more remains of US army soldier killed in Niger are found
Meanwhile, additional an unnamed U.S. official said Tuesday that remains of U.S. Army Sergeant La David Johnson were found in Niger on November 12.
Johnson and three other U.S. soldiers were killed on October 4 when their convoy was ambushed as it left the village of Tongo Tongo.
The official said medical examiners had verified Johnson’s remains, which were found at the site where his body was recovered.
Members of the U.S. Africa Command and the Niger military, who are investigating the ambush, visited the site on November 12 and are expected to complete the probe in January.
Johnson, a 25-year-old from Florida, was separated from his military unit and his body was not recovered until two days after the ambush.
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The attack has come under intense scrutiny in the U.S., where the Pentagon’s initial account of the attack has been questioned.
Lawmakers have complained that they received insufficient or conflicting information on the the incident.
The U.S. military is helping Niger deal with threats by members of Islamic State and al-Qaida, but deaths of U.S. servicemen in Niger are rare.
Johnson’s fellow soldiers killed in the attack were Bryan Black, 35; Jeremiah Johnson, 39; and Dustin Wright, age 29.
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