Jurors in Patrick Ho’s bribery trial will hear accounts of arms sales, US judge rules
- US District Judge Loretta Preska finds against the defence on several motions in last hearing before trial in Manhattan begins on November 26
- Prosecutors will also be able to have a former co-defendant testify against Ho about an alleged scheme to bribe Chadian president Idriss Déby.
A US district judge has ruled that jurors in the coming bribery trial of former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping will hear evidence related to allegations that Ho sold weapons to Libya, Qatar, and South Sudan in 2015, one of several setbacks his defence team suffered in a final pretrial hearing on Wednesday.
US District Judge Loretta Preska also permitted federal prosecutors to call to the stand Cheikh Gadio, formerly a co-defendant in Ho’s case, who will testify that Ho and the Chinese oil and gas company Ho is affiliated with – CEFC China Energy – tried to offer a US$2 million cash bribe to the Chadian president Idriss Déby. Gadio was charged a year ago as a co-conspirator in the case, but agreed to testify against Ho in exchange for charges being dropped.
Ho, who had been working for a US-registered think tank affiliated with CEFC China after he left the Hong Kong government in 2007, is accused of sending US$2.9 million worth of bribes to Déby; Uganda’s foreign minister, Sam Kutesa; and Gadio, who was formerly Senegal’s foreign minister, in exchange for oil rights for CEFC China in Chad and Uganda.
Facing eight counts of bribery and money laundering, Ho could get as many as 30 years in prison if found guilty on all counts.
Prosecutors contend that Ho helped Déby secure China’s military assistance in cracking down on the militant Islamist group Boko Haram by channelling arms sales through Iranian financial institutions. Although Ho is not on trial for these allegations, the prosecuting team will use evidence related to them to prove that Ho has a track record of doing deals in the Middle East and Africa in return for favourable terms for CEFC’s business interests in the region.