The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has named former Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor and four other former officials as its main persons of interest in its investigation into the Ghanaian dimension of the bribery case involving former Tema Oil Refinery Managing Director Asante Kwaku Berko and Turkish energy company Aksa Enerji.
The other two main persons of interest named by the OSP are Francis W. Kwesi Dzata, who was Technical Adviser to the Minister of Power at the relevant time, and Solomon Adjetey Sowah, then a Deputy Director at the Ministry of Power.
The OSP also identified two other persons who were, at the relevant time, officers of Tricorp Group as persons of interest.
Mr Agyebeng said the investigation had also identified persons of interest among former employees of the Volta River Authority, Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), and staff of the entity formerly known as the Ministry of Power.
The announcement follows the August 6, 2026 conviction of Asante Kwaku Berko by a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, for conspiring to pay and paying more than US$1 million in bribes to multiple Ghanaian officials between 2014 and 2015.
The payments were linked to efforts to secure the development and financing of a power plant in Ghana under an arrangement involving the Government of Ghana, Aksa Enerji Uretim A.S., a Turkish energy company, and Goldman Sachs.
The OSP disclosed that it had provided investigative and evidentiary assistance to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) through Ghana’s mutual legal assistance framework during the US prosecution.
According to the Office, the United States Department of Justice acknowledged its assistance as significant to the prosecution. Mr Agyebeng said, however, that the OSP’s involvement did not end with its assistance to the US authorities.
He said the Office had been “carefully” investigating the Ghanaian dimension of the matter and warned against assuming that the conviction of a person in a foreign jurisdiction automatically establishes criminal liability for persons connected to the same transaction in Ghana.
“Each person’s act must be assessed under Ghanaian law,” he said, stressing that prosecution in Ghana would depend on evidence lawfully obtained and capable of supporting a case under Ghanaian law.
The Special Prosecutor further emphasised that the OSP would not prosecute anyone merely because their name appeared in proceedings in another country, but would prosecute where the evidence established a proper basis for doing so.
He also cautioned the public against treating the classifications “person of interest” and “suspect” as interchangeable.
According to the OSP, identification as a person of interest does not constitute criminal liability or a finding of guilt. Criminal guilt, he stressed, must be established in accordance with the applicable law.
The development comes amid renewed public scrutiny of the Aksa Energy transaction following Berko’s conviction in the United States. The conviction has also triggered calls for a review of Ghana’s agreements with Aksa Enerji and renewed examination of the circumstances surrounding the power project.
The OSP has meanwhile rejected suggestions that it lacks the capacity or track record to investigate the Ghanaian dimension of the matter, pointing to its cooperation with US authorities in the Berko prosecution. Mr Agyebeng called instead for cooperation among Ghana’s investigative, intelligence and prosecutorial institutions, arguing that the fight against corruption should not become a competition between state agencies.
He urged the institutions to share intelligence and work together in pursuing the Ghanaian dimension of the case.
