Kutesa, wife corruption scandal: US court upholds conviction of briber

The United States Court of Appeal has upheld a conviction of Chi Ping Patrick Ho for among other charges; money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and foreign corrupt practices.

In 2017, Ho was found guilty of bribing Uganda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa with half a million UD dollars ($500,000). He was consequently sentenced to 36 months in prison and a fine of $400,000.

Ho however appealed the decision by the court.

In the ruling by the US Appellant Court, Ho was found guilty of paying bribes on behalf of a Chinese company to the leaders of Chad and Uganda in exchange for commercial advantages.

Kutesa denies allegations that he was bribed, he instead claims that the money was wired to his account for the charity.

The government instituted a committee led by Attorney General William Byaruhanga and it cleared Kutesa of any wrongdoing.

The committee said that they had evidence of Kutesa’s legally registered charity organization in Uganda.

 

Background of the case

In 2014, Ho sought an introduction to Sam Kutesa – the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Uganda, who had recently begun a one-year term as the President of the UN General Assembly – for the purpose of helping CEFC Energy develop business in Uganda’s oil fields.

Ho contacted Kutesa’s office at the UN in New York and introduced himself as the “Deputy Chairman and Secretary 9 General” of CEFC NGO, “a Chinese think tank registered in Hong Kong and also in the USA as a public charity” with “special consultative status from UN’s Economic and Social Council.”

Around February 2016 – by which time Kutesa had completed his term as President of the General Assembly and returned to Uganda as Foreign Minister – Kutesa, through his wife, solicited a bribe from Ho to be disguised as a payment to a charitable foundation. Ho requested, and ultimately received, authorization from the chairman of CEFC Energy to make a half-million-dollar payment to Kutesa’s charity.

Ho then contacted Kutesa to advise him that the payment would be made and to procure an invitation to the inauguration of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who was Kutesa’s brother-in-law. Ho told Kutesa that he would bring executives from CEFC Energy to discuss business opportunities in Uganda.

On May 5, 2016, Ho caused a wire transfer of $500,000 to be sent from CEFC NGO to an account belonging to the Food Security and Sustainable Energy Foundation at Stanbic Bank in Kampala, Uganda, as a donation to the foundation designated by the Kutesas.

Specifically, the wire originated “from HSBC Hong Kong on behalf of CEFC [NGO] as the originator, through to HSBC Bank US as the 10 US correspondent for credit to Deutsche Bank in New York.

US as a correspondent for the beneficiary bank Stanbic Bank in Uganda, for final credit to the beneficiary Food Security and Sustainable Energy Foundation.

Ho and a CEFC Energy delegation attended the inauguration in May 2016 and met with Museveni, Kutesa, and others. After the trip, Ho emailed the Kutesas and reiterated that CEFC Energy was anxious to partner with the Kutesa's family businesses.

About five months later, Kutesa’s wife told Ho about a confidential opportunity to acquire a Ugandan bank. Ho referred the matter to another CEFC Energy executive to handle, but it appears that CEFC Energy ultimately did not complete a deal in Uganda.