At 12.55pm on March 28th, 2014, the Corsican businessman dubbed “the godfather to the godfathers”, Michel Tomi, picked up his phone. At the other end of the line was an old associate, Pierre-Nonce Lanfranchi, known as 'Nono'. “Fuck, they're not letting go of you!” says a clearly irritated 'Nono', a councillor in the small village of Guitera-les-Bains in southern Corsica. On that day an article in Le Monde had revealed the existence of a major judicial investigation into Michel Tomi, who has twice been convicted in financial cases linked to the Corsican Mafia.
“They're coming for me all right!” confirms Michel Tomi, who unbeknown to him was being listened to by detectives from France's anti-corruption unit based at Nanterre, west of Paris. “Yeah, but you'd say that they were really looking for IBK,” replies 'Nono', referring to the current president of Mali Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who is usually known by his initials. “He's going to end up in custody, no?” continues 'Nono'. “I don't think so, no,” replies Michel Tomi. “But there's something going on behind this, it's just not possible,” exclaims his friend. “Of course, you're right,” agrees Tomi.
Indeed, 'Nono' may well be partially right. Though he is currently protected legally by his status as a head of state, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is certainly very much on the radar as far as French police and judges are concerned, according to documents gathered by Mediapart. IBK's conversations with Michel Tomi were listened to on numerous occasions in 2013 and 2014 during an investigation by examining magistrates Serge Tournaire and Hervé Robert into Tomi's large business empire in Africa, in the course of which the businessman’s phones were covertly tapped.
Nor is IBK the only African head of state whose conversations have been recorded as part of the probe into Tomi's affairs; Gabon's president Ali Bongo also features prominently in the transcripts of the recordings. The transcripts reveal a vast system of largesse of all natures offered by Michel Tomi for the benefit of IBK and, to a lesser extent, Ali Bongo. This generosity includes cruises on yachts, trips in private jets, stays in the largest and most palatial Parisian hotels, transport in limousines, the purchase of expensive suits, cars, glasses and medical care, much of it paid for in cash. When contacted by Mediapart neither the presidential office of Mali or of Gabon made any comment about the content of the phone tap transcripts. However, according to French radio station RFI, IBK was alluding to them in remarks he made on May 22nd: “I have always said, you can try to destabilise a man but if this man has faith, if this man has the support of those who know him and who believe in him, it's a wasted effort. That's how I am, in the hands of god and those close to me. We're not naïve and today I am a happy man.”
The revelations will not just be an embarrassment for Michel Tomi, IBK and Ali Bongo. For the publication of evidence of the close ties between the Mali president and the so-called “godfather to the godfathers” Michel Tomi will come as a devastating blow to French president François Hollande's African policy. As far as the Hollande presidency is concerned Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is more than a president, he is a symbol of that African policy, of the war that Hollande waged in Mali, of the fight against terrorism and of the new relations that the French head of state swore that he wanted to forge with Africa as a whole. François Hollande has often received IBK at the Elysée and greeted his election as president of Mali in 2013 by being the only Western leader to attend the investiture in Bamako, while IBK was in the front row of world leaders in the Paris march on January 11th, 2015 that followed the terrorist attacks in France. Hollande has rarely missed an opportunity to praise the Malian head of state whom he described at the investiture in Bamako as a “good, a great president”.
But as Hollande attended IBK's swearing-in ceremony in September 2013, the discreet figure of Michel Tomi was lurking in a corner “so as not to be noticed”, as Le Monde put it. Tomi and IBK have known each other for years. In an interview with Jeune Afrique in May 2014, IBK denied any financial links but stressed his closeness to the businessman. “Yes. I regard him as a brother. … Michel Tomi has remained my friend. But never, absolutely never, has there been any question of money between us.”
Tomi was once a key if background figure in the network around Charles Pasqua, a hard-line interior minister in the 1980s and the 1990s. The Corsican was convicted in 2007 for his part in a financial and political funding scandal centred on the casino at Annemasse near the French-Swiss border, having already been convicted in 1976 for involvement in a scandal surrounding a casino at Bandol in the south of France. In Africa, meanwhile, he built up a gaming empire which then moved into property, aviation and many other areas, operating mainly in Cameroon, the Gabon and Mali.
The catalogue of corruption
Enlargement : Illustration 3
Suspected for many years by the French police of having been, at best, the banker for the Corsican Mafia, and at worse one of its most formidable godfathers, Tomi has done all he can to avoid being eavesdropped by the judiciary. But in vain, it appears. According to the transcript of a conversation on one of Tomi's phones at 6.58pm on March 31st, 2014 – three days after Le Monde's revelations – the businessman told IBK and his wife that he used a special number for his conversations with them. “It's only for you ...You see, I only use it for Mali, so it's not been affected by these problems,” he is heard saying, his meaning barely disguised.
Ten minutes later Tomi calls on a line that has been identified by French police as one used by IBK and his wife. “Sometimes on the other [editor's note, meaning 'other line'] I might say some daft things. So don't take any notice. You see what I'm telling you … I tell you the truth on this one.” Unfortunately for Tomi, “this one” was also being tapped by French police investigators. A few months later, on June 20th, 2014, after 48 hours in custody, he was formally put under investigation – one step short of charges – for “corruption of foreign public officials”, among a total of 17 different alleged offences.
A feature of the transcripts of the phone-tapped conversations seen by Mediapart is Michel Tomi's desire to satisfy the most trivial desires of IBK and Ali Bongo of the Gabon. He is their man. Their cash register. He is the man who makes their lives easier, while in return he is given a free rein to expand his business empire in Africa. To justify giving these favours, Michel Tomi has told investigators that he has close “family” links with IBK and Ali Bongo.
Though Mali is classified as one of the poorest countries in the world, and is beset by war and terrorism, the transcripts of the phone taps on Tomi's phones reveal that Mali president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is a man obsessed with satisfying his lavish spending needs. Tomi looks after those needs. To start with there is a car, a Range Rover, discussed in a phone conversation between Tomi and IBK that was recorded at 8.15pm on October 4th, 2013. “And the Range?” Tomi asks the Mali president. “Great, great...” replies IBK, who according to the French judicial investigation had not paid a cent for it. The Corsican businessman then comes across like the head of state's nanny, taking IBK through his medical prescription and listing the medicines that he must take without fail.
Indeed, Michel Tomi appears to have done all he could to ensure that his friend received the best possible healthcare in France. On December 3rd, 2013, having checked that IBK has received the coat that he has just sent him (“so tomorrow you can wrap up warm”), Tomi uses humour to emphasise the efforts he has made to obtain a medical appointment. IBK, who in 1999 was vice-president of Socialist International, seems happy to go along with it.
Tomi: “You know the latest thing for a socialist? We're going to break a strike tomorrow, because there's a hospital strike in Marseille but for you we're going to open the MRI [editor's note, for a scan].”
IBK: Oh, my brother.”
Tomi: “What...”
IBK: “You're making me a strike-breaker!”
Tomi: “There you go! Strike breaker! I've already prepared the banner 'IBK against the strike'.”
Many of their conversations centre around luxury aeroplanes. First of all there is the issue of a private Bombardier Global Express jet, owned by Michel Tomi's group, which the Malian presidency was renting for a million euros “even though the Malian state seems to have a presidential plane”, write investigators at the French anti-corruption unit, the Office anti-corruption, in a summary report in March 2014.
Another issue discussed is the purchase of an aeroplane for the Malian presidency, at an estimated cost of 36 million dollars, via a Hong Kong-based intermediate company Skycolor. The French investigators have so far been unable to find out who the true economic beneficiaries are in the contract. But whoever they are, the deal signed between the Malian state and Skycolor makes provision for a 5% commission for them. The French police suspect that Tomi or his associates are behind the whole operation, something the businessman denies.
The taps on Tomi's phones show that Tomi and his circle invested a great deal in this sale. The investigators' summary report also highlights the “influence” that Tomi appears to exercise over the president of Mali. When two Malian government ministers were opposed to the purchase of the aircraft on the grounds of good governance, “Michel Tomi was informed and immediately contacted the Malian president, asking him to call his ministers”. The astonished investigators then note: “That same evening the Malian president made contact with Tomi to inform him that he had contacted his minister for the economy and that signing the sale of the aircraft raised no problem at all.”
Michel Tomi's involvement with the jet does not end there. On April 2nd, 2014, Tomi made a phone call to IBK's closest advisor in the presidency, Mahalmoudou Sabane, during which it is revealed that the businessman from Corsica has himself paid an aeronautical expert to examine the newly-acquired aeroplane. “Look, Sabane, there's a problem,” says Tomi, according to the transcript of the conversation. “We have an expert who landed yesterday to appraise the 727 [editor's note, in fact it is a 737] at the president's request. He's been at the hotel since yesterday with no news. It's someone we've paid for. No one is looking after him. A driver needs to be sent to him.” Sabane, who calls Tomi “boss”, appears to be happy to do the businessman’s bidding, and replies: “Yes, I've got it.”
'Do you need anything else?'
The transcripts also show how Michel Tomi ensures that IBK stays in the best hotels in Paris and Marseille when he visits France, whether the trips are official or not: the Royal-Monceau, La Réserve, the Meurice, the Sofitel and the Intercontinental. It is one of Tomi's henchmen, Valentin Dos Reis, who pays the bills, always in cash. They are sizeable bills, too: 14,005 euros and 32,950 euros, to give two examples. But it is Michel Tomi who personally makes the reservations. On February 5th, 2014, he called the Sofitel in Marseille “on behalf of President Keita”. He wanted “the grand suite for him”. He did the same thing with the Royal Monceau in Paris, where he needed seven rooms for the Malian president – the largest they had.
Enlargement : Illustration 5
A few hours later Tomi called IBK to tell him that he had taken care of everything for his stay, which looked as if it was going to be a busy one. “We're going to the tailor's and everything. We can go shopping,” says the businessman, who also suggests putting one of his private jets, the Falcon 900 or the Global Express, at the Malian president's disposal. Meanwhile there is a minor panic in the presidency. Mahalmoudou Sabane calls Tomi to complain that the Sofitel hotel in Marseille has sent the bill “to the office”. “We asked that that shouldn’t happen,” he says. Tomi replies: “Send it back. I'll deal with it.”
IBK, meanwhile, has other things on his mind. The following day, at 8.21pm, in the course of a telephone conversation, the Malian head of state has a question for Tomi.
“Have you remembered my glasses, Michel?”
“Tomorrow, I have the ones with clear glass. There are three pairs,” Tomi replies.
IBK: “The sunglasses, the sunglasses!”
Tomi: “Ok, no problem, no problem.”
For IBK, everything has to be done with great attention to detail. Tomi even gets involved with the films that have to be downloaded on the Malian president's iPad. The list of films that the man dubbed “the godfather to the godfathers” dictates to one of his underlings during a phone conversation at 2.26pm on February 8th, 2014, speaks for itself. “The three 'Godfathers', 'Goodfellas', 'L'Ultimo Padrino', put in the series 'Corleone', it's great, put in the series – and this is not so great – 'Mafiosa' about Corsica. That will please him.”
On another occasion Tomi sees to it that suits from exclusive tailors Cifonelli are ready for his “brother” Keita at his suite in the Intercontinental in Paris. The bill would have run into several thousands of euros. A tap on Michel Tomi's phone at 10.10pm on March 2nd, 2014, shows that IBK is touched by the favours, and also in a hurry. “Michel, if the people at Cifonelli, here, could give me my campaign outfits, I'd appreciate it very much. My light suits, the three pockets here...” says IBK. “They'll be ready tomorrow. Do you need anything else?” asks Tomi. “Er, not at this moment,” replies the president of Mali.
Tomi's relations with Gabon's head of state, Ali Bongo, also reveal the Frenchman's generosity, as well as his loyalty. For Tomi, Gabon is like his second home, the country where he set up business in the early 1990s when he first dealt with Ali Bongo's father, Omar Bongo. Indeed, Tomi took Gabonese nationality a decade ago. When questioned by investigators in June 2014 Tomi said his close ties with Ali Bongo went back to the days of Omar Bongo. “I was, in Gabonese custom, his father's 'brother'. I was lucky enough to have his affection.” As a result Ali Bongo looked upon him as his “uncle”, said Tomi.
It is, though, the eavesdropped conversations that involve the president of Mali, which show IBK's interest in fine things, that will cause political embarrassment, including for the French presidency. Yet Ibrahim Boubacar Keita's taste for big cars and luxury are nothing new. In the autumn of 2014 a Malian politician told Mediapart: “IBK has benefited from International and French benevolence because he was seen as having the support of the military [editor's note, particularly the military putschists who had deposed the prime minister Cheick Modibo Diarra in Dcember 2012] and that he represented the best means of carrying the army [with him], at a time when France was busy with Operation Serval [editor's note, the French military operation to drive out the Islamists from Mali].” But the politician added: “IBK has always been concerned about money, the trivial, the flashy. The Malians have always known this. He left enormous debts at the government when he left [editor's note, as prime minister] in 2000.” In 2014, too, the political analyst Moumouni Soumano told Mediapart: “It's unworthy of a president of the Republic to be friends with a guy like Michel Tomi.”
However, IBK has always cultivated strong ties with the French Socialist Party and Socialist International and knew how to make the most of those ties when it came to his presidential campaign in Mali in 2013. “IBK was France's man, there was absolutely no doubt about that,” one of his advisors told Mediapart at the time. “Moreover, some French diplomats constantly reminded people that they had files on his opponent Soumaïla Cissé and that they could dig them out ...”
IBK also goes back a long way with François Hollande. The pair first met in 1997 when IBK was prime minister of Mali and Hollande had just become first secretary of the Socialist Party. “When he was vice-president of Socialist International, IBK knew François Hollande and Manuel Valls very well,” recalls one of the Malian president's closest friends, Ibrahim Daga.
Tiébilé Dramé, who was a rival candidate in 2013 before withdrawing, is also certain that IBK was France's “preferred” candidate. “He went to the Fondation Jean Jaurès [editor's note, an important institution in the world of French socialism] two months before the vote to activate his socialist networks. In Paris they preferred to forget his troubles and the fact that he was a leader more interested in luxury than good governance,” says Dramé.
Indeed, few people believe François Hollande's denials of suggestions that he backed IBK's candidacy behind the scenes. “In the organisation of the elections in Mali, France, which had the role that everyone is aware of, did not seek to impose a candidate. Nor did a candidate claim to be a representative of France, because there is this principle of independence,” Hollande declared on September 19th, 2013, in Bamako.
Now that the content of the tapped conversations between IBK and Michel Tomi have been made public – phone taps of which the French government must certainly have been aware – the question arises of how long Hollande and his ministers will continue to sing the praises of the president of Mali. Neither the Elysée or the French foreign ministry responded to Mediapart's requests for a comment.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
English version by Michael Streeter