In 2010, a Paris-based judicial investigation was launched into evidence that several African leaders and their families held vast assets in France gained from the proceeds of embezzlement of their countries’ national funds.
The case, which has become known in France as that of ‘Biens mal acquis’, or ‘ill-gotten gains’, was triggered by a private legal action lodged by independent anti-corruption organisations Transparency International and Sherpa.
Those under investigation include the Republic of Congo's President Denis Sassou Nguesso, the late Gabonese President Omar Bongo and his son and successor Ali and Equatorial Guinea Vice-president Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue. All are owners of vast assets in France, including luxury villas, mansions and penthouses, vehicles and sizeable bank accounts. All are - or, in the case of Omar Bongo, were - considered stalwart allies of France.
In a recent development in the investigation, Mediapart has learnt how officers from the French police’s specialized Central Office for the Repression of Major Financial Delinquency, (the Office central pour la répression de la grande délinquance financière), have collected evidence of a remarkable multi-million euro shopping spree around Paris by the Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso and his family.
Between 2005 and 2011, they frittered away at least 7.7 million euros in purchases in upmarket Paris stores, according to Mediapart’s calculations based on the consultation of dozens of police documents recording the purchases that included 2.5 million euros-worth of jewellery and watches, 1.6 million euros on men’s suits and 250,000 euros on shirts. The detail of the spending can be seen on page 2 of this report.
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Most of the money spent on the shopping spree came from embezzled state funds belonging to the Republic of the Congo (also known as Congo-Brazzaville), which Denis Sassou Nguesso has ruled uninterrupted since 1997. The sub-Saharan country features on the World Bank’s list of 'Heavily Indebted Poor Countries', and almost half of its 4.3 million population live below the poverty line. One quarter of under-5 year olds suffer from chronic malnutrition. The unemployment rate stands at more than 30%.
The oil- and mineral-rich former French colony’s main economic resource is petroleum extraction, and it is one of the main oil producers in sub-Saharan Africa accounting for 65% of GDP, according to the World Bank, although little appears to benefit the broad population. Nearly 60% of petroleum extraction in the Republic of the Congo is managed by French oil group Total.
The French investigation into the Sassou Nguesso family’s financial operations in France has revealed a sometimes complex network of accounts and shell companies, and which are slowly being unraveled by police financial crime experts in cooperation with the French finance ministry’s money laundering investigation unit, Tracfin, and a number of foreign agencies.
The police detectives have identified a suspected key front man acting for the Congolese family, who Mediapart can identify only as Philippe C (last name withheld). A French national domiciled in Nyon, Switzerland, he was the subject of a Tracfin report dated August 3rd 2012 in which it reported he was responsible for opening several bank accounts in the name of numerous shell companies which were registered in tax havens including Mauritius, the Republic of Seychelles, the Marshall Islands and Hong Kong.
In a French police report dated June 19th 2013 and consulted by Mediapart, a detective investigating Philippe C’s role in mounting Sassou Nguesso’s network of secret funds noted: “Transactions of several million euros were made (60 million euros), of which the origins may be illegal […] These actions could indeed be the result of corruption crime committed in in Africa (Congo-Brazzaville and more precisely Congo).”
French police have also established evidence that, beginning in 2007, one of the Republic of Congo’s national public administration departments, the general directorate for major construction projects, the Direction générale des grands travaux (DGCT), transferred more than 60 million euros to foreign bank accounts controlled by Philippe C.
A part of these funds were sent to a small banking institution in San Marino, a tiny sovereign state situated in an enclave on the Italian peninsular.
A bill for 1.66 million euros-worth of suits
The authorities in San Marino have transferred information to the French investigation resulting from their own enquiries into suspected money laundering by Philippe C. Mediapart understands that this includes the discovery that the Republic of Congo’s general directorate of the treasury, the Direction générale du trésor, ordered payment transfers amounting to several dozens of millions of euros to an account the front man controlled in San Marino.
In comparison to these and other huge amounts of money Sassou Nguesso and his family are suspected of embezzling from the public purse of his impoverished country, their 7.7 million-euro luxury shopping orgy in Paris could possibly appear anecdotal.
But, the details of what was spent and bought, collected by police after visiting dozens of upmarket stores and boutiques in the capital, highlights the shocking lifestyle of a clan who continue to be courted by France’s political and financial elite with whom Sassou Nguesso has a long history of close relationships. (The latest illustration of that was the warm reception he offered to the conservative UMP party’s president Jean-François Copé and Vice-president Rachida Dati during their visit to Brazzaville for a forum this July organised by the magazine Forbes - see more in this Mediapart article in French).
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According to the financial crime police squad documents, to which Mediapart has gained access, the Sassou Nguesso family’s luxury purchases include the following examples, set out here in a store-by-store list:
Halary,a specialist in luxury, tailormade shirts: Between September 2005 and November 2011, a total of 257,261 euros was spent on shirts bearing the monogram ‘D.S.N.’ (for Denis Sassou Nguesso), silk and woolen socks, and silver and gold cufflinks.
Arije, jewellery and watch store: between 2009 and 2011, Denis Sassou Nguesso’s wife Antoinette made 171,675 euros-worth of purchases, of which 130,000 euros were settled in cash. Claudia Nguesso, the daughter and special advisor of the Congolese president, spent 243,000 euros in the store over the same period, while her father spent 14,130 euros.
His cousin, Edgar Sassou Nguesso, spent 1.04 million euros in the store over a period of two years, of which almost 200,000 euros was paid in cash. Wilfrid Sassou Nguesso, the Congolese president’s nephew who is also the chairman and CEO of the Congolese maritime transport company Socotram, topped the big spending with purchases of 1.05 million euros.
Dubail, watches and jewellery store situated on the place Vendôme in central Paris: in 2006, Edgar, the cousin, spent 94,484 euros for the purchase of three watches, one of which, an IWC ‘Tourbillon’ in pink gold cost almost 60,000 euros. The Congolese president’s son Denis Cristel, spent 22,160 euros in cash in 2008 for a watch that was also in pink gold. Two watches, a Richard Mille and Franck Muller, were bought in 2008 and billed to the Sassou Nguesso family (no individual name appeared in the store’s bookkeeping), for a total of 196,970 euros. Part of the sum was paid by a company called African Petroleum Activities LD.
Pape, men’s tailor: between 2005 and 2012, Denis Sassou Nguesso spent 1.66 million euros on suits, most of which was paid by bank transfer, and notably by a property company. His cousin Edgar spent 443,452 in the store for the purchase of more than 130 suits. The Congolese president’s nephew Wilfrid spent 38,209 euros in the store, using the account of the Congolese maritime transport company Socotram which he heads.
Louis Vuitton, luxury goods and clothes: Edgar Nguesso, the Congolese president’s cousin, spent 708,000 euros in the store, mostly in cash. Between 2005 and 2011, Jean-Jacques Bouya, another cousin of Denis Sassou Nguesso, made purchases amounting to 136,500, of which about half was paid in cash. Denis Sassou Nguesso himself spent a total 101,704 euros in the store, all in cash, his daughter Claudia splashed out 34,000 euros, while his wife Antoinette spent another 27,870 euros. The president’s son-in-law Guy Johnson made purchases for 11,121 euros.
Romeo, furniture and interior decorations store: the French police found bills for goods totaling 757,200 euros made out to ‘Monsieur Sassou Nguesso’. Some of the bills were settled via Swiss banks.
Villa Paris, tile supplier: between 2006 and 2007, Denis Cristel Sassou Nguesso, the Congolese president’s son, spent a total of 402,000 euros which were paid via the BGFI Bank in Libreville, capital of the West African state Gabon.
Unza Design, interior design and architecture specialist: police found a a bill made out to Denis Sassou Nguesso for 244,642 euros.
Dolce Gabbana, fashion clothing store: Claudia Sassou Nguesso spent 2,810 euros on T-shirts, trousers and blouses.
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English version by Graham Tearse