Thursday , November 7 2024

US arrests two Chinese oil company reps in Africa bribery scheme

Ho, 68, and Gadio, 61, are each charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and money laundering, with possible jail sentences of as much as 20 years. They were arrested over the weekend in New York.

Ho was Hong Kong Home Affairs secretary from 2002 to 2007, and served for several years on the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee Conference.

Gadio was Senegal’s foreign minister from 2000 to 2009.

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CEFC China Energy’s role was apparent in the formal complaint. It identified the chairman of the unnamed company as someone who was appointed as a “special honorary advisor” to the president of the UN General Assembly in 2015, when Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa held that position.

A Chinese media report at the time showed CEFC China Energy Chairman Ye Jianming together with Kutesa noting Ye had just been named a “special honorary advisor” to the UN General Assembly.

Ye was labelled China’s “newest oil baron” by Forbes magazine in 2016 after his company made a number of large investments in the Czech Republic.

CEFC China Energy has spread its business through Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Gulf states, rising in just a few years to be a major player in world oil markets and raising questions about its backing inside China.

Calls placed to the company went unanswered.

2 comments

  1. Hmmm. Is this why these NRM honchos are clinging onto power? Are these allegations against Kuteesa which also implicate M7 just the tip of the iceberg?

  2. Kutesa has been getting away with the loot in Uganda, sharing it with inlaws and the kabal.aA short stint at the UN in New York and his paws were already in the cookie jar. wrong one this time. he has been caught.

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