Posted by Dow Jones Newswires on
The Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday that it has charged a former employee at telecommunications company ITXC Corp. with bribing a Nigerian government official in order to win a lucrative contract with the state-owned phone company, Nitel.
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday that it has charged a former employee at telecommunications company ITXC Corp. with bribing a Nigerian government official in order to win a lucrative contract with the state-owned phone company, Nitel. Yaw Osei Amoako, formerly ITXC's regional director for Africa, was accused of authorizing almost $167,000 in payments to an agent at Nitel between 2002 and 2004. ITXC merged with Teleglobe International Holdings Ltd. (TLGB) (TLGB) in June 2004. The SEC said that the payments helped ITXC win the right to make telephone calls to people and businesses in Nigeria. The SEC said that the state-owned phone company doesn't grant such rights liberally and restricts access to Nigerian customers in order to increase the fees it can charge to foreign telephone companies for placing calls to its customers. An attorney for Amoako could not immediately be located. A Teleglobe (TLGB)spokesperson was not available to immediately return a phone call. -By Siobhan Hughes, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6654; Siobhan.Hughes@ dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires