A bribery case does not always arrive with a signed receipt. In the trial of former Goldman Sachs banker Asante Berko, prosecutors presented something different, a mosaic of evidence. They placed before the jury a high-value public project, politically connected intermediaries, payments tied to transaction milestones, personal email accounts, disputed consulting invoices, cash withdrawals, a recorded lunch conversation, and an individual who allegedly stood to receive millions.
Over the next five days I will be taking a deep dive into this trial to see how the prosecution was able to so quickly convince a jury of the defendant’s guilt. The verdict was rendered in just over 3 hours which tells you the jury had no doubt as to the defendant’s guilt. This blog post series is based upon the excellent reporting of Law360 reporter Stewart Bishop and additional source documents and resources from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The government’s burden was to prove the charged crimes beyond a reasonable doubt. Its strategy was to show that the evidence did not consist of isolated red flags. Each category corroborated the others. Taken together, prosecutors argued, the pattern demonstrated opportunity, corrupt intent, concealment, and personal gain.
A National Crisis and a High-Stakes Deal
The story began with a legitimate and urgent business need. Ghana had suffered widespread power shortages, and its government was seeking projects capable of adding generation quickly. Aksa Enerji Uretim A.S., a Turkish energy company and Goldman client, pursued an agreement to build and operate a power plant. The commercial stakes were substantial. Goldman contemplated arranging approximately $190 million in financing for Aksa and a $75 million letter of credit for Ghana. Goldman also held an approximately 16 percent interest in Aksa. The indictment alleged projected fees of approximately $10.3 million for the loan and more than $1 million for the letter of credit.
Berko was central to the business effort. A dual citizen of the United States and Ghana, he worked in the structured-finance group of Goldman’s United Kingdom subsidiary and had relationships with senior Ghanaian officials. Prosecutors argued that he connected three critical groups: the commercial client seeking the project, the local intermediaries who claimed access, and the public officials whose approvals were required. That role gave the government its organizing theory. Berko was not presented as a participant at the edge of the transaction. He was presented as the linchpin.
The Email Trail
The most important prosecution evidence was documentary. More than 300 emails were admitted during the nine-day trial. Prosecutors used their language, timing, recipients, and communication channels to construct a chronology of the alleged scheme. One September 2015 email shown to the jury stated that Parliament had been paid by Berko and discussed approximately $46,000 that he allegedly paid. Other messages addressed payments associated with the Ministry of Power, regulators, power-team personnel, travel, and parliamentary approval. In a July 2015 exchange over the size and timing of payments, Berko wrote that he was managing a relationship expected to pay everyone millions.
The government argued that these exchanges became more incriminating when compared with Berko’s ordinary deal communications. Routine transaction work went through Goldman’s systems. Sensitive payment discussions appeared in personal accounts. In February 2016, prosecutors showed the jury two emails sent 14 minutes apart. One used Berko’s Goldman account for ordinary deal business. The other used Gmail and instructed recipients to communicate there because his Goldman account was monitored. Personal email alone does not prove bribery. The government’s point was more precise. When an employee knows that the official system is monitored, moves sensitive discussions to a private channel, and then uses that channel for payment conversations linked to public approvals, the channel choice may support an inference of concealment.
Money That Followed Milestones
The prosecution next aligned communications with transaction events and financial flows. The indictment alleged that intermediaries used false consulting invoices to obtain reimbursement for bribes and routed funds from Turkey to Ghana through correspondent accounts in New York.
The chronology was central to the prosecution’s case. In April 2015, as the parties pushed toward execution of the emergency power agreement, an intermediary issued a $500,000 invoice. Emails allegedly discussed using part of that money to pay a Ghanaian official, and a $500,000 wire followed. Later that month, five Ghanaian officials traveled to Turkey to inspect equipment. The indictment alleged that their expenses were covered and each received $5,000.
When a senior Ghanaian official signed the agreement in May 2015, another invoice for $1.5 million was issued the same day. A $1.5 million transfer followed later that month. After Parliament ratified the agreement in July, emails discussed a $250,000 reimbursement request that included payments connected to Parliament, the Ministry of Power, regulators, engineers, travel, and Berko personally.
At trial, a government summary witness walked jurors through charts tracing funds from Aksa accounts in Turkey to accounts associated with intermediaries, Berko, and others. The records did not show the final transfer to every alleged official. Prosecutors answered that gap by pointing to evidence that cash was used to complete and conceal the payments. The amounts require discipline. The indictment alleged more than $700,000 in bribes. DOJ stated after the verdict that the government proved more than $1 million in bribes at trial.[1][5] Those figures come from different stages of the case and should remain separately attributed.
The Recorded Lunch
The recording supplied another form of corroboration. In November 2016, an FBI-assisted source met Berko at a London restaurant. The conversation moved among English, Twi, and Ghanaian Pidgin English, and the jury received a translated transcript. In one exchange, the source asked about a former energy minister. Berko replied that “KD got one million.” In another discussion, framed around a hypothetical investment, Berko initially said it was not good to pay the individuals under discussion. When asked for the best way to pay them, however, he answered, “Cash,” and said he could obtain $1 million from a bank.
The prosecution used these statements to reinforce its reading of the emails and money flows. The recording did not stand alone. It supplied the government’s alleged final piece of context: the same person who used private email for sensitive payments and appeared throughout the deal chronology also discussed a million-dollar payment to an energy minister and the practical use of cash. The source’s incentives, the FBI’s preparation of the conversation, translation issues, and the hypothetical framing were substantial defense subjects. They will be examined in Part 2. For the government’s case, the point was corroboration.
When Compliance Became Evidence
Goldman’s compliance response became part of the prosecution’s proof and in my mind one of the key components of the government’s overall presentation to the jury as it was essentially evidence from an outside party to the transaction. Amandine Martin, who worked with Berko on the transaction, testified that Goldman spent months seeking explanations for payments to the Ghanaian intermediary. According to her testimony, the answers did not match information previously provided, and Aksa’s chief executive eventually responded that the company did not have time for the questions. Goldman withdrew from the transaction and did not provide the planned financing. Goldman was not charged in the criminal case. Prosecutors nevertheless used the compliance record to argue that Berko understood the risks and the institution’s rules, knew that his communications were monitored, and failed to correct allegedly false or incomplete explanations about the intermediary.
This is the first compliance lesson of the series: a control is also a record. Questions, responses, escalation, monitoring, and the decision to exit can later become evidence of what an employee knew, what the company challenged, and how the organization responded.
The Government’s Mosaic Holds
After approximately three hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Berko on all three counts: conspiracy to violate the FCPA, a substantive FCPA violation, and money laundering conspiracy. He was remanded pending sentencing. The general verdict does not tell us which email, payment path, witness, or recorded statement the jury found most persuasive. It also does not convert every factual assertion in the government’s narrative into a special finding. It does establish that the jury found the charged elements proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
That is the power of a circumstantial case. The government did not ask the jury to rely on one dramatic piece of evidence. It asked jurors to see a single pattern across communications, payments, timing, conduct, compliance warnings, and alleged concealment. The jury accepted that case.
Join us tomorrow in Part 2 where we will examine the defense’s answer: if the government said bribes went “up and down the chain,” where was the last mile showing money reaching a public official?
Resources
United States v. Berko, No. 1:20-cr-00328-DG, Indictment, ECF No. 3 (E.D.N.Y. filed Aug. 26, 2020)
Stewart Bishop, “Goldman Jury Sees Cash Talk in Energy Deal Email Deluge,” Law360, Aug. 1, 2026; Stewart Bishop, “Goldman Exec Was Linchpin to Ghana Bribery Ploy, Jury Told,” Law360, Aug. 5, 2026.
Stewart Bishop, “Ex-Goldman Exec Convicted of Ghana Bribery Plot,” Law360, Aug. 6, 2026. Supplied trial reporting.
U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, “Former Goldman Sachs Investment Banker Convicted of Foreign Bribery and Money Laundering,” Aug. 6, 2026, DOJ Press Release.
Stewart Bishop, “Goldman Jury Sees Undercover Video as Bribe Trial Nears End,” Law360, Aug. 4, 2026. Supplied trial reporting.
Stewart Bishop, “Shady Power Deal Used in Goldman Compliance Prep, Jury Told,” Law360, July 29, 2026
SEC Final Judgment against Asante Berko
SEC Complaint against Asante Berko