The National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate John Dramani Mahama’s political career has been plagued by the Airbus bribery scandal for a long time.
However, his brother Samuel Adam Mahama’s shocking allegations have brought the subject back into the spotlight.
Samuel Mahama acknowledged getting €2.75 million for helping Airbus SE sell three military aircraft to the Government of Ghana, which is estimated to be worth €90 million, just days before Ghana’s crucial general elections in 2024.
The deal’s middleman, Samuel Mahama, told The Africa Report in a four-hour exclusive interview that Airbus probably engaged him in 2009 due to his family’s connection to John Mahama, the vice president of Ghana at the time.
In addition, Samuel Mahama acknowledged that John Mahama, a high-ranking government official, participated in the arms sale that he (Samuel) brokered, notwithstanding John Mahama’s assertions that Airbus had direct dealings with Ghanaian officials.
He acknowledged that he and British actor Philip Middlemiss helped Airbus provide Ghana with C-295 military transport planes, confirming many of the major allegations made public by the Department of Justice and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in 2020.
He acknowledged that he and Middlemiss had no prior aircraft sector experience.
He acknowledged that Airbus paid them €2.75 million and made use of a third party to go around its compliance system, which the Office of the Special Prosecutor has called “wrongful and deceptive.”
The SFO’s assertion that he, John Mahama, and Airbus executives met in London in January 2011 to discuss the C-295 project was confirmed by Samuel Mahama when he was questioned about specific interactions with his brother. The OSP stated that the meeting should have happened to Mr. Mahama and that it was obligated “to raise reasonable suspicions of improper conduct.”
In its public summary of the case against Airbus, the SFO included an email dated November 9, 2013, which Samuel Mahama also verified was accurate. “I am hoping to meet [my brother] tomorrow, so hopefully will have some more news tomorrow,” Samuel Mahama wrote in that email to an Airbus official. I think that for us to proceed, they all need you to show there.
Samuel Mahama responded that the president’s assistance was occasionally required to get the C-295 project forward when asked why he was meeting with John Mahama in November 2013.
“Sometimes he needs to shout at someone to say, ‘Why is this stuck here?” Samuel Mahama told The Africa Report.
“These are the things that they [Airbus] write to me, asking me to help them with,” he recalled of his involvement. “He [an Airbus executive] writes to me directly saying, ‘Please, can you pass this on to your brother?’”
Although the SFO’s conclusion that Airbus executives purposefully broke the company’s own compliance regulations by sending money to Samuel Mahama and Middlemiss via a third party was approved, Ghana’s special prosecutor did not uncover any evidence of wrongdoing. That strategy was deemed “wrongful and deceptive” by the OSP.
The SFO claimed that Airbus compliance staff had protested the project’s inclusion of people “close to the decision makers” in Ghana.
Samuel Mahama attested that he was informed by Airbus executives that he would have to get payment indirectly due to his familial connections.
“It was a culture of it.” A culture of what? “Of what they were doing around the world, a culture of they’re bribing.” “It wasn’t a few rogue employees, it was more than that.” asked about Airbus’s methods at the time, Samuel Mahama replied
The Mahama family has been involved in a massive corruption scandal for almost five years.
The US Department of Justice and the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced in January 2020 that Airbus has agreed to pay €3.6 billion in fines after acknowledging “endemic” misconduct worldwide.
The aerospace business specifically acknowledged that it had not stopped its executives from using the brother of a high-ranking elected official in Ghana and the official’s buddy to bribe the official.
According to Airbus, the wrongdoing occurred when the company sold Ghana’s government three military aircraft for an estimated €90 million.
The identities of those implicated were not disclosed by Western authorities.
Nonetheless, the SFO included enough details in its case synopsis for Ghanaian media to quickly identify them.
John Mahama, who served as Ghana’s vice president from 2009 to 2012 and president from 2012 to 2017, was later identified as the incriminated official by the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
The OSP criticized the former president for holding secret meetings with Airbus executives and expressed worries about the role of Samuel Mahama, John Mahama’s biological brother, even though it stated that it did not discover any evidence of illegality.
“The familial relationship between former President Mahama and Foster (Samuel Mahama) and the direct participation by former President Mahama in the communications and meetings with Airbus officials were bound to raise reasonable suspicions of improper conduct and dealings.” the OSP stated,
Source: newsthemegh.com