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U.S. Drops charges against ex-senegal official in Chinese energy bribery case
NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors have quietly dismissed charges against a former Senegalese government official who had been accused of conspiring with a representative of a large Chinese energy company in a bribery case.
U.S. Drops charges against ex-senegal official in Chinese energy bribery case
Dismissals of this sort often come with agreements not to prosecute in return for testimony.
The dismissal of the criminal complaint against Gadio, who had served as Senegal’s foreign minister, came roughly 10 months after he was arrested along with Chi Ping Patrick Ho in a high-profile foreign bribery case that could shed light on the operations of CEFC China Energy, an energy conglomerate with close ties to the Chinese government.
Authorities have said Ho met Gadio at the United Nations in 2014 and later paid him $400,000 for helping to use his influence with the president of Chad to secure oil rights for the Chinese energy company in the African country. Ho, who worked for a Hong Kong research organization that got financing from CEFC, is separately charged with paying bribes to Ugandan officials to secure similar oil deals for the energy company.
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The dismissal of the bribery charges against Gadio presents an interesting wrinkle in the case against Ho, who now stands to go to trial alone in a federal courtroom in Manhattan in November.
Gadio is expected to testify at the trial but there is no indication of any broader agreement with federal prosecutors.
The dismissal came after months of negotiations between Gadio’s lawyer and prosecutors, according to prior court filings in the case.
The charges against both men were brought under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The charges against Ho are a bit unusual because they involve a Chinese company operating in Africa. The main connection to the United States is that Ho was a frequent visitor to New York and had meetings at the United Nations.
Ho is being held without bail at the U.S. Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.
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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Matthew Goldstein © 2018 The New York Times
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