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Airbus scandal: Prosecute me, Mahama dares Amidu

John Mahama, the former president, says he never benefited financially from the Airbus deal, and challenges Martin Amidu to go public with his evidence

The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Mahama, has called the bluff of the Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, daring him to prosecute him if he has any evidence to implicate him in the Airbus scandal.

Amidu has cited the former president as Government Official 1 in the Airbus bribery scandal in a recent report to President Akufo-Addo.

He said that Mahama has not been interrogated in the matter, however, because he is the presidential candidate of the largest opposition party in the December general election.

“This Office also has warrants of arrest issued by the Courts of Ghana, and an Interpol Red Alert Notice outstanding for execution in the case of the Republic v Samuel Adam Mahama and Others (known as the Airbus SE – Ghana Bribery Scandal, involving the then Government of Ghana), not to talk of documentary evidence of suspected forgeries and deceit of a public officer by the three full-blood brothers in the corruption transaction to obtain a Ghanaian passport for Samuel Adam Mahama,” Amidu said, delivering his report on the Agyapa deal.

He added: “This Office has established the identity of elected Government Official 1 to be former President John Dramani Mahama, whose brother of the full blood is Samuel Adam Foster, also known as Samuel Adam Mahama. The only reason the former President has not been invited for interrogation (in spite of all threats from some of his followers and lawyers) is the fact that he got himself an insurance as the presidential candidate of the other largest political party in Ghana and prudence dictated that the interrogation be held in abeyance during this election season.”

Equalisation

Reacting to the report, John Mahama dared Amidu to come out publicly with all the evidence he has against him, saying the Special Prosecutor mentioned him in the Agyapa Royalties risk assessment report purely to “equalise”.

“I’m disappointed in Martin Amidu for putting that paragraph in his report to equalise things. No financial benefit accrued to me, not a single dollar.

“Legally, he has not a single basis to continue with that investigation. He should show us what investigation he has done, he should tell us who he has spoken to,” Mahama told the Accra-based Starr FM on Tuesday (3 November 2020).

Wanted for questioning

The Ghana Police Service has declared the British television and radio actor Philip Middlemiss wanted over the role he played in the alleged £5 million Airbus bribery scam.

Ghana’s Special Prosecutor launched a full-scale investigation into the Airbus scandal in February and has released the passport details of the actor and four other individuals online as wanted for questioning.

He is being sought along with four others in relation to the £50 million sale of three Airbus C-295 military planes to Ghana. According to the Sun newspaper, after starring in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street, Middlemiss reportedly headed to Ghana to start making a film.

He claims he then befriended the brother of the country’s former vice-president, before heading back to the UK.

Middlemiss lives in a smart, £400,000 detached property in Greater Manchester, the Sun reported, even though he was declared bankrupt in 2012 over unpaid tax.

Documents from Ghana’s Special Prosecutor show that Middlemiss could have been a project manager for Airbus, which sold the planes to Ghana, when the alleged bribery took place.

It is also alleged that he incorporated a company in the UK in 2010 through which he assisted Airbus with the suspect deal. Of the people who have been declared wanted, two other than Middlemiss are British nationals and the third is a dual national of the UK and Ghana, the Sun said.

Middlemiss’s girlfriend Leanne Davis told the Sun she had no knowledge of any investigation. “I don’t know anything about that. Phil’s not here. I’m not sure when he’ll be back,” she said.

Airbus confesses

The European aviation giant Airbus confessed to paying huge sums of money in bribes to government officials and people close to the seat of government in Ghana during the Mills and Mahama governments.

Court documents show that Ghana is among the countries to which Airbus doled out millions of dollars in bribes between 2011 and 2015 to strike deals through secret agents. “It was a pervasive and pernicious bribery scheme in various divisions of Airbus SE that went on for a number of years,” US District Judge Thomas Hogan said.

In January this year, it was announced that the European planemaker had agreed to pay a record settlement worth US$4 billion to regulators and anti-fraud agencies in France, the United Kingdom and the United States in connection to the Airbus saga. The scandal related to aircraft sales to five out of a total 20 countries investigated – Ghana, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Taiwan. The US Department of Justice said the sum was the largest-ever foreign bribery settlement.

The bribery scheme was run by a unit, based at the Airbus headquarters in France, which the company’s one-time chief executive, Tom Enders, reportedly used to call “Bullshit Castle”.

The disclosures, made public after an investigation lasting nearly four years and spanning sales to more than a dozen overseas markets, came as courts on both sides of the Atlantic formally approved settlements which lifted a legal cloud that had hung over Europe’s largest aerospace manufacturer for years.

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