US clears Senegalese ex-foreign minister in bribery scheme

The United States has dismissed a major bribery complaint against former Senegalese foreign minister Cheikh Gadio, the Justice Department said.

A spokesperson confirmed "the dismissal of the complaint against Gadio" in an email to AFP on Saturday.

US authorities arrested Gadio and Hong Kong's former home affairs secretary Patrick Ho Chi Ping in November 2017 for allegedly leading a multimillion dollar bribery scheme in Africa on behalf of a top Chinese energy company.

The company was not identified in the announcement or the complaint filed in New York federal district court, but details in the complaint pointed to CEFC China Energy, the Shanghai-based rising star of China's energy industry.

In the Justice Department complaint, the two men allegedly offered a USD 2 million bribe to the president of Chad "to obtain valuable oil rights," and a USD 500,000 bribe to an account designated by the minister of foreign affairs of Uganda, who had recently completed his term as the president of the UN General Assembly.

The charges were based on their use of the US banking system to process almost a million dollars in payoffs, sent under the guise of donations.