It was on the morning of October 3rd 2014 when French police investigators arrived at number 76 bis boulevard Bourdon, in the upmarket Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. They had come to search the premises of a fifth-floor apartment belonging to Edgard Nguesso, nephew of Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso.
The 638 square-metre apartment, luxuriously furnished, sits on three levels, the highest being a 100-metre roof terrace with a magnificent view east across Paris. During the search, the officers from the specialized serious financial crime squad, the Office central pour la répression de la grande délinquance financière, made a surprising discovery in a dressing room. On the floor was a brown leather case with a padlock attached. A member of the household, present during the police search, provide a key to the lock.
The case proved to be stuffed full of cash, in euros, dollars and in the African currency of CFA francs. The wads of euro banknotes were contained in plastic bags and also envelopes that bore the stamp of the Georges V hotel, one of the grandest in the French capital. The US dollars were in plain manila envelopes.
In all, the police found 240,000 euros (in 100- and 200-euro notes), 71,000 dollars and 1,670,000 CFA francs (equivalent to about 2,540 euros). Close to the suitcase, in handbags and also boxes from the Chopard jewellery business in Geneva, they discovered a stash of necklaces and rings with diamonds and other precious stones. There were also several luxury watches, some in gold and encrusted with diamonds, and about ten mobile phones.
The raid was part of an ongoing judicial investigation, launched in 2010, into evidence that several African leaders and their families held vast assets in France gained from the proceeds of embezzlement of their national funds of their countries.
The raid was part of an ongoing judicial investigation, launched in 2010, into evidence that several African leaders and their families held vast assets in France gained from the proceeds of embezzlement of the national funds of their countries.
Enlargement : Illustration 3
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 President Denis Sassou Nguesso, Ali Bongo, the son and successor of the late Gabonese President Omar Bongo, 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.
The Republic of Congo features on the World Bank’s list of ‘Heavily Indebted Poor Countries’. Almost half the 4.2 million population live under the poverty line, and a quarter of children aged under 5 years suffer from malnutrition. Access to running water and electricity is problematic for large swathes of the country, where the unemployment rate is above 30%.
Edgard Nguesso, 47, is both nephew of the Republic of Congo president and also head of the country’s ‘Presidential domain’. Mediapart has previously reported on how he joined his uncle in a multi-million-euro shopping spree in the French capital, lashing out nearly 1.6 million euros for jewellery, watches and suits.
Edgard Nguesso has gone to considerable lengths to avoid appearing as the owner of the Neuilly-sur-Seine apartment, which was bought in February 2008 for 2,328,000 euros. According to solicitors’ documents, the purchase was made via the intermediary of a Congolese property company called M.IMMO. Edgard Nguesso’s name does not appear in the hallway of the building where a letterbox carries the name of M.IMMO.
The police found that the landline phone account for the ‘triplex’ apartment was opened by a woman called Claudie NGouelondele, which is the maiden name of Michèle Nguesso, Edgard’s wife. They also established from the building’s collective management committee that Michèle Nguesso had in person paid, in cash, a total of 53,500 euros for the apartment’s share of the regular upkeep charges.
They discovered that since it was bought in February 2008, a total of 1.5 million euros has been spent on the apartment in furnishings and decorative and building work, including 90,000 euros for a Bang & Olufsen hi-fi system. The different sums were paid via a company called CIPCI International, based in the British Virgin Islands. The offshore company paid 200,000 euros out of the 290,000 euros claimed in fees by an architect hired for the changes made to the apartment. The remaining 90,000 euros was paid by d’Edgard Nguesso in cheques.
Enlargement : Illustration 4
Summing up the position of the Congolese government towards the French investigation, Jean-Pierre Versini-Campinchi, one of the Paris-based lawyers representing members of the Nguesso regime, told news agency AFP that it was “illegal with regard to international law”.
In a report dated October 9th 2014, the officers of the serious financial crime squad wrote: “A study of the CIPCI International company’s account allowed us to demonstrate that this account is essentially financed by funds from the directorate-general of the Congo-Brazzaville Treasury Department; that it serves essentially for personal spending such as on clothes and luxury jewellery, luxury cars, stays at the [luxury Paris hotel] Réserve Paris, but also to pay contractors who carried out work on the asset situated at 72 bis boulevard Bourdon in Neuilly-sur-Seine of which our investigation has shown that the real owners are Edgard and Michèle Nguesso.”
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- The French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Graham Tearse