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Chinese who allegedly bribed Kutesa seeks Shs36 billion bail
Inner City Press reported that Mr Chi Ping Patrick Ho wants to be released on $10 million bail (about Shs36 billion) in cash.
What you need to know:
- According to the complaint now before the New York Southern District Magistrate’s Court, against Mr Ho, he caused a $500,000 payment to be wired to an account in Uganda designated by the Ugandan Foreign Minister.
- Mr Kutesa allegedly received the $500, 000 ‘bribe’ to help a Chinese company acquire a commercial bank in Uganda and secure business advantages in Uganda’s oil sector.
- When the Daily Monitor in December asked Mr Kutesa about the matter, he refuted taking the bribe.
Kampala
The US Federal Bureau of Investigations says the Chinese man who allegedly bribed Uganda’s Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa with Shs1.8 billion will today (Monday, January 8) seek bail, according to a US-based investigative news Website.
Inner City Press reported on January 6 that Mr Chi Ping Patrick Ho wants to be released on $10 million bail (about Shs36 billion) in cash.
He prefers to be detained at his home in Manhattan New York and be monitored electronically to being in jail.
Mr Ho, who is reportedly in detention in New York, will anchor his bail application on his being ‘the head of a UN–recognised organisation’.
He is the deputy chairman and secretary general of the China Energy Fund Committee (“CEFC”), a Hong Kong based nongovernmental organisation that has special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
Mr Ho’s Monday application will not the first.
The last time he applied for bail, court refused to grant it saying the charges against him were serious.
Mr Ho, 68, and Cheikh Gadio, 61, Senegal’s former Foreign Minister, are each charged with conspiring to violate the US’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), conspiring to commit international money laundering, and committing international money laundering.
The maximum penalties for these charges are: five years in prison for conspiring to violate the FCPA; five years in prison for each violation of the FCPA; 20 years in prison for conspiring to commit international money laundering; and 20 years in prison for each charge of committing international money laundering.
What remains to be seen in court on Monday is whether the court will grant Mr Ho bail.
Mr Gadio, who the Federal Bureau of Investigations said gave the President of Chad Idriss Déby a $2 million bribe.
Mr Gadio allegedly advised Mr Ho to "reward" the Chadian president with "a nice financial package to obtain lucrative oil rights from the Chadian government.
In exchange, Déby is alleged to have provided the energy company with "an exclusive" opportunity to obtain particular oil rights in Chad without facing international competition, according to the criminal complaint.
Mr Gadio is now out on bail.
Meanwhile in Uganda, the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, said last week she is ruminating on whether the House should institute an ad hoc committee to investigate the claims against Mr Kutesa.
This followed a petition by four concerned Ugandans.
Before the four concerned Ugandans petitioned the House, Ntungamo Municipality Member of Parliament Gerald Karuhanga and Lwemiyaga MP Theodore Ssekikubo had suggested that Parliament investigate the matter.
Then, Ms Kadaga said it was premature.
“We do not know whether he [Kutesa] is going to be a witness or something else. Let us wait for the outcome of the proceedings in New York,” Ms Kadaga said on Thursday, December 14 at Parliament.
