The Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, has named former Power Minister Kwabena Donkor as a "person of interest" in the Asante Berko/Aksa Energy bribery investigations.
He said this while addressing a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, to mark five years since his swearing-in as Special Prosecutor.
Agyebeng said four other persons had also been named as persons of interest in the Ghanaian aspect of the case involving Asante Kwaku Berko, a dual Ghanaian-American citizen who was convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, on August 6, 2026.
Berko, a former Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery and former Executive Director in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs, was convicted of conspiring to pay more than $1 million in bribes to Ghanaian officials between 2014 and 2015.
According to Agyebeng, the alleged bribes were linked to the development and financing of a 370-megawatt fuel oil plant in Tema under an agreement between the Republic of Ghana and Aksa Enerji Üretim, a Turkish energy company that was a client of Goldman Sachs.
He said the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) had provided investigative and evidentiary assistance to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the case through Ghana's mutual legal assistance arrangements, and that the US Department of Justice had acknowledged the OSP's assistance in the prosecution. He said the OSP had continued investigating the Ghanaian side of the case after providing that assistance.
Agyebeng cautioned that Berko's conviction in the United States did not, by itself, establish criminal liability under Ghanaian law. He said the conduct of each person would have to be assessed separately under Ghanaian law, using evidence obtained lawfully.
The other persons named as persons of interest are Francis W.K. Dzata, a technical adviser to the Minister of Power at the time; Solomon Ajete-Sowa, a former Deputy Director at the Ministry of Power; Lenden George Nisor-Metal, a director at Tri-Corp Group Limited; and Bafo Ankuma-Brobay, an employee of Tri-Corp Group Limited. Agyebeng said other persons of interest included current and former staff of the Volta River Authority, the Ghana Grid Company Limited, the Electricity Company of Ghana, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission and the entity formerly known as the Ministry of Power.
Agyebeng stressed that being named a person of interest was different from being classified as a suspect. He said neither classification amounted to criminal liability or a conviction, adding that guilt would have to be proved in court beyond reasonable doubt, and urged the media to exercise care in reporting the announcement and the individuals named.
Agyebeng also rejected suggestions from what he described as official sources that the OSP lacked the capacity to investigate the Ghanaian side of the case. He pointed to the OSP's role in supporting the US prosecution of Berko and called for greater cooperation among Ghana's investigative, intelligence and prosecutorial institutions, saying the fight against corruption should not be treated as a competition among state institutions.
