KT Hammond, a former Adansi Asokwa Member of Parliament, has said his client, the former Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor, did not receive any money from convicted former Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) Managing Director and Goldman Sachs banker Asante Berko.
He argued that allegations by US authorities against convicted Asante Berko do not establish that former Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor received any money.
KT Hammond highlighted that evidence presented in the United States case involving Mr Berko did not directly link his client to any alleged bribe.
According to KT Hammond, Dr Donkor acknowledged that he was the Minister responsible for Power in 2015 during the ASKA power project discussion, but had categorically denied receiving any inducement.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Monday, August 10, 2026, KT Hammond stated, “He instructs me to say that he has never in his life made eye contact with that person,” Mr Hammond said, referring to Mr Berko.
“More importantly, his instructions are that he categorically denies knowing anything about any form of inducement, any money, dollars, cedis, whatever. He has absolutely no clue what is being talked about.”
“For the Americans and for the purpose of that prosecution, it simply means that he was involved in a kind of bribery from his own evidence,” Mr Hammond said.
“But when you then take out the individuals, I don’t get the impression that the fact that somebody said that I was going to give me some money, first of all I’m going to hand it over to this other person, constitutes an evidential basis for an allegation, serious allegation of criminality.”
KT Hammond rejected suggestions that Kwabena Donkor should be implicated simply because he was the Minister responsible for the Power Ministry at the time of the ASKA project.
He argued that holding the ministerial position did not, in itself, constitute evidence of involvement in any alleged bribery scheme.
The lawyer also refuted claims that Parliament or individual Members of Parliament received money in connection with the transaction.
“What we do in Parliament is not a sale of indulgence, sale of documentation or sale of any business. We do our mandated duty of scrutinising documents,” he said.
Meanwhile, KT Hammond, in an earlier statement dated Monday, August 10, 2026, said their client did not know of any request or demand for money in connection with negotiations between the government and ASKA Energy.
Part of the statement stated, “Our client instructs us in very clear language that he has absolutely no knowledge of the allegations linked to him. He completely and emphatically denies any knowledge of a request or demand for any money as alleged”.
“At no point in the course of this negotiation did he once set eyes on the said Mr Asante Berko, nor has he since”.
“He has never met the said Mr Asante Berko all his life; he never discussed any personal benefit of any value whatsoever with Mr Asante Berko or any other person for that matter; he never authorised any person to discuss any such matters on his behalf; he never received any money in any denomination or any personal benefit of any value from Mr Asante Berko or any other person,” his lawyers stated.
The statement added, “Any person or persons who may have made any such criminal demand in his name did so for that person or persons’ own benefit”.
“Our client does not understand that any evidence was led in the US trial which linked him with demanding or receiving any money, cedis or dollars or anything of value to him personally,” the statement said.
“He does not accept that evidence that some other person or persons claimed that they required money from their principals for the benefit of ‘Senior Ghana Official’ or any other title holder metamorphosed into any evidence of criminality or wrongdoing against him,” the statement added.
“We are instructed to notify the general public accordingly, and to state that any publication or statement of any kind which could be interpreted as contrary to the instructions clearly stated above and which will seek to impugn on the reputation and integrity of our client SHALL result in immediate legal proceedings,” Cavendish Chambers said.
Background
The former TOR MD Asante Berko was convicted by a federal jury in the United States over a bribery and money laundering scheme linked to a power plant project in Ghana.
Asante Kwaku Berko, a dual US-Ghanaian citizen, was convicted in Brooklyn on August 6, 2026, on all counts in the indictment, following a nine-day trial before US District Judge Diane Gujarati in the Eastern District of New York.
According to information gathered, Asante Berko and others conspired to pay more than US$1 million in bribes to Ghanaian government officials to help secure a multimillion-dollar power plant deal for Turkish energy company AKSA Enerji Uretim A.S.
The shady deal centres on a power plant deal that was under development and financing between December 2014 and July 2015.
However, details provided by US court documents disclosed that several Ghanaian officials allegedly received bribes to facilitate a power plant deal during Ghana’s power crisis in 2014 and 2015.
The US court document, however, did not provide any names but provided institutions connected to AKSA Enerji’s emergency power project bribe.
The court document detailed that Asante Berko and his co-conspirators paid and conspired to pay bribes to individuals at various levels of the Ghanaian government to ensure that the said company AKSA won its bid to build and operate the power plant.
@ghnow_ There are issues in every family, I call my sister (Adwoa Safo) “Sokode” – Akofenya speaks #GHNow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
@ghnow_ “I take all the blame, I am sorry for this disgrace to my father”- Akofena Speaks #GHNow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
