Congo Hold-up: Sud Oil, the siphonneuse of the first circle of Joseph Kabila

Former Congolese President Jospeh Kabila.

© RFI

Text by: Sonia Rolley Follow |

Mediapart

32 mins

The leak of several million documents and banking transactions at BGFIBank reveals the extent of the embezzlement of public funds.

Among the main alleged beneficiaries are Joseph Kabila, the former president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and his inner circle.

The first part of this survey, called Congo Hold-up, concerns the company Sud Oil and its satellite companies.

They have received more than $ 90 million in public money.

Mediapart survey with EIC and its partners, seventeen media including RFI and five NGOs.

Advertising

Read more

"

 What is Sud Oil?"

 ". There is not a guard at 43 avenue Tombalbaye who knows this. However, in 2014, this discreet company under Congolese law for the distribution of petroleum products set up at this number and throughout the building and garage concession it houses on one of the main shopping streets of Gombe, in full heart of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). " 

No, here, it's not Sud Oil, it's at Kabila's

 », Corrects the guard.

In this great country of Central Africa, often described as a geological scandal, the population has not missed any scandals linked to the plundering of its resources.

What the Congolese are often unaware of is by what mechanisms and arrangements they have been robbed of the benefit of these riches.

They suffer the consequences on a daily basis.

More than 70% of Congolese still live on less than two dollars a day

.

Entrance to all of the buildings housing Sud Oil in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

© PPLAAF

To understand how these public hijackings were operated, for nine months, nineteen international media coordinated by the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) network, including Radio France Internationale (RFI) and five NGOs analyzed the biggest banking data breach in the world. Africa, called Congo Hold-up.

These are more than 3.5 million documents and millions of transactions of the BGFI group and its subsidiary in the DRC covering a period of ten years, obtained by the NGO

Platform for the protection of whistleblowers in Africa. (PPLAAF)

and the French information site Mediapart.

► To read also: Congo Hold-up: the biggest leak of bank documents in Africa

As in Gabon and Congo-Brazzaville, BGFIBank RDC is the president's bank.

In 2010, when this brand moved to Kinshasa, Joseph Kabila's sister, Gloria Mteyu, received 40% of the capital free of charge.

In 2013, Francis Selemani, his adopted brother, became the Managing Director of BGFI RDC.

They will retain these positions and benefits at least until May 2018.

The analysis of the Congo Hold-up documents shows how the Kabila family and its associates received, with the complicity of the BGFI, 138 million dollars from the state coffers between 2013 and 2018. These alleged embezzlement of public funds are the 'equivalent to 250,000 years of average salary in the DRC.

To this are added colossal deposits of money: 33 million dollars deposited in cash, and 72 million of unknown origin which passed through the BGFI account at the Central Bank of Congo (BCC).

On the total of this public money, Sud Oil plays an important role, because this company has collected, with its satellite companies, more than 150 million dollars, including 28 million in cash and 92 million in public money on their accounts at the BGFI.

Rule # 1: Take control of an existing company

Sud Oil was created in 2008 by Pascal Kinduelo, a businessman close to the Kabila family, who became chairman of the board of directors of BGFIBank RDC two years later.

Mr. Kinduelo owned 60% of his shares.

The other 40 percent was held by his daughters Mina and Lyvie Kinduelo.

Initially, Sud Oil was a true petroleum distribution company: it had a small network of seven service stations.

But in 2011, she sells these stations and seems to go dormant.

But then she has a second life, when the Kabila family takes control.

Officially, according to minutes, on October 4, 2013, an extraordinary general meeting of Sud Oil was held.

The shareholders declared on this occasion are Aneth Lutale, wife of Francis Selemani Mtwale (80%) and Gloria Mteyu (20%).

At the start of the session, the managers are still Pascal Kinduelo and one of his daughters.

But when the assembly ends, they resigned and are replaced by a certain David Ezekiel.

Sud Oil's statutes in 2013. © GRC

Sud Oil's new statutes were not adopted until the following year.

But the faithful and discreet Tanzanian collaborator

of Francis Selemani Mtwale

, David Ezekiel is already taking the hand.

The Congo Hold-up documents establish that, through him, his boss, the general manager of BGFIBank RDC, effectively controls Sud Oil.

Analysis of Sud Oil's accounts at the BGFI shows that between 2013 and 2018, Joseph Kabila's adoptive brother personally received at least $ 10 million from Sud Oil, used in particular to buy real estate in South Africa and in the USA.

His collaborator, Mr. Ezekiel, will single-handedly withdraw nearly $ 53 million in cash from the company's accounts.

There are a lot of Sud Oil beneficiaries.

It was also used to transit ten million dollars paid by foreign companies, part of which could come from bribes, as we will reveal in the next parts of our investigation.

The embezzled funds also seem to have benefited the duo of businessmen Alain Wan and Marc Piedboeuf, partners of Joseph Kabila.

Unknown to the general public, these two men control an economic empire in the DRC.

In particular, they were shareholders and then managers of Grands Élevages du Bas-Congo, the immense agricultural estate of President Kabila.

On May 25, 2016, Marc Piedboeuf withdrew $ 640,000 in cash from Sud Oil's account at BGFI through a check issued by the company in his favor.

On June 26, 2016, André Wan, Alain's son, in turn withdrew $ 1.1 million in cash in the same way.

Asked about this, Alain Wan and Marc Piedboeuf refused to answer, indicating, through the voice of their lawyer, that our questions contain information " 

for the most part false

 " and are motivated by the " 

manifest intention to harm

 ".

On November 3, 2021, even before the publication of this article, they lodged a complaint for “slanderous denunciation” against our partners Mediapart and

De Standaard

with a public prosecutor in Kinshasa, asking him to “ 

dispatch a rogatory commission to the courts Belgian and French since there is danger in the remainder

 ”.

During this investigation, we also came up against a wall of silence.

The main personalities involved, Joseph Kabila, Francis Selemani Mtwale, Gloria Mteyu, Pascal Kinduelo, David Ezekiel did not wish to answer our questions.

Rule # 2: Choose a registered office

In the fall of 2013, Sud Oil launched its first operation since the takeover of the Kabila family: the acquisition of the old building of ATC, a car dealership owned by Philippe de Moerloose, a wealthy Belgian businessman very close to Joseph Kabila, who had bought it himself two years earlier from his own group. It is this real estate complex which is located at 43 avenue Tombalbaye in la Gombe.

Emails show that Francis Selemani Mtwale appears to be negotiating the sale himself with Philippe de Moerloose on behalf of Sud Oil, despite officially having no function in the company.

“ 

Dear Francis, I hope you are doing well.

Be sure that we will make this deal and that I have no problem, because I trust you.

This is the most important

 ”, the Belgian businessman wrote to him on October 14, 2013.

Mr. de Moerloose claims 12 million dollars, to be paid into his Swiss account at the UBS bank in Geneva: 5 million immediately, and the balance spread over one year.

At that time, however, Sud Oil only had a little over $ 100,000 in its account.

But for Francis Selemani Mtwale, brother of the President of the Republic and Director General of BGFI DRC, this is not a problem.

On November 25, 2013, the day of the sale, the Central Bank of Congo (BCC) transferred $ 5.5 million to Sud Oil's account at BGFI.

The remaining seven million are financed by a bank guarantee granted by the BGFI, in the form of twelve monthly drafts that Sud Oil must repay.

The company has scrupulously honored its commitments, thanks to mysterious deposits of cash made before each deadline.

Transfer from the BBC to Sud Oil.

CRG

Asked about these emails, Philippe de Moerloose ensures that his " 

exchanges with Mr. Selemani concerned

" only the " 

payment guarantee

 " granted by the BGFI "

 and not the real estate transaction

 ". He also explains that he “ 

at the time demanded a copy of the register of shareholders

 ” of Sud Oil, and that the document presented to him “

 did not inform any member of the Kabila family

 ”.

At the start of 2014, Sud Oil moved its head office to the concession acquired from Moerloose.

According to several witnesses, the company had no employees on site, not even an office for its manager David Ezekiel, the collaborator of Francis Selemani Mtwale.

"

 He came from time to time, but to settle business and problems related to the building,

 " said one of our witnesses.

Officially, Sud Oil is still an oil company, but we have not found any trace of its activity in this area.

It is not even registered as a taxpayer with the Ministry of Finance.

The company therefore does not have a tax number and does not pay any tax.

In short, Sud Oil is a ghost company.

Sud Oil's only economic activities seem to have been carried out with the BGFI. In April 2014, Sud Oil rented part of the old garage which served as its head office to the bank, so that it could store its archives. Sud Oil and a company created by Mr. Ezekiel, Horizon Congo, will subsequently rent three other properties from the bank, and collect rents for a total amount of $ 784,000.

The BGFI also paid Sud Oil $ 934,000 to buy company cars for senior executives of the bank, including $ 145,000 for two vehicles: those of its managing director Francis Selemani and the chairman of the board of directors Pascal Kinduelo.

It is not known whether the vehicles were delivered;

but, we only found $ 276,000 of payments denominated as car purchases in Sud Oil's bank statements, which might indicate that they were billed to BGFI for three times the price.

Rule # 3: Set up your network

In this year 2014, the big business of Francis Selemani Mtwale seems to be to take control of new banks.

To achieve this, he will first create a new company: Kwanza Capital.

It is officially 80% owned by Pascal Kinduelo, Chairman of the Board of Directors of BGFI and 20% by Sud Oil.

As the

NGO The Sentry

, a partner of the Congo Hold-up project,

has already revealed in a report

, Kwanza Capital was the Kabila family's secret investment bank.

From its creation, it obtained from the Central Bank the status of “

 specialized financial institution

 ”, until now reserved for financial institutions with a mission of public interest.

The analysis of the accounts carried out by Congo Hold-up shows that Sud Oil financed Kwanza to the tune of 23 million dollars, largely thanks to embezzled public money. The first operation on Kwanza's account at BGFI, on August 27, 2014, was a transfer of five million from Sud Oil, which the company was able to finance thanks to a transfer of the same amount made the same day by the Central Bank of Congo. .

On November 19, 2014, Sud Oil paid him three million dollars more which was immediately withdrawn in cash by Pascal Kinduelo. These funds were obtained by Sud Oil from Equal, another company linked to relatives of Joseph Kabila, specializing in the import of foodstuffs. Analysis of the documents shows that Equal also got them directly from the Central Bank. This is how public money disappears in a maze of companies run by relatives of the former president.

Kwanza was thus able to embark on money lending to very specific clients. The first, the SCTP, is the public company in charge of ports and river transport. Kwanza loaned him $ 24 million, which will earn him 1.3 million in interest. The second loan was granted to Afritec, a public works company controlled by people very close to Joseph Kabila. $ 3.7 million is loaned and $ 4.1 million returned, making a net profit of $ 381,000 for Kwanza.

The Congo Hold-up documents also confirm some of the revelations of The Sentry, a partner in this investigation. The American NGO revealed that at the end of 2014, Kwanza Capital had tried to buy one of the most important banks in the Congo: the Commercial Bank of Congo (BCDC), one of whose shareholders was at the time the businessman. Belgian Georges Forrest.

Analysis of Kwanza Capital's accounts shows that on December 12, 2014, BGFI received an order from this company to transfer two million dollars to Mr. Forrest's account at BCDC. This operation was suspended for a while because a banker at the BGFI noted "

 the absence of a signature from the principal or even a base 

". His colleague asks him " 

to carry out the operation

 " and replies that "

 the signatures will be regularized once the client is available

 ". The wording of this transfer is “

 agreement regulation

 ”.

This sale never took place.

It is in particular following the failure of this takeover that Francis Selemani Mtwale would have tried to launch his own investment bank, with all the attributions that this implies.

But this company, called Alliance Bank and 80% owned by Kwanza, was never able to start operations.

It needed so-called “correspondent” banks abroad which carried out operations in dollars on its behalf.

But no foreign establishment has accepted to play this role for the Kabila family bank.

Rule # 4: Draw straight from the source

The history of Sud Oil will change again in 2015, at the same time as that of the country.

The end of Joseph Kabila's second term is approaching,

and the Constitution forbids him to run for a third

.

Elections are scheduled for November 2016.

In January 2015, Parliament examined a draft electoral law, certain provisions of which could postpone the polls. This initiative is interpreted as Kabila's desire to remain in power illegally and it provokes the first demonstrations, bloodily suppressed by the regime, with around forty deaths in Kinshasa alone. The crisis lasts for more than two years. Until the signing of a political agreement in December 2016 on the organization of the elections, Joseph Kabila was under pressure from the streets to leave power within the deadlines provided for by the Constitution.

It was during this period of political uncertainty for Joseph Kabila, from 2015 to 2016, that Sud Oil received the most public money: more than $ 66 million in two years of public money, or 72% of the sums. that she receives. By far the biggest contributor to the front company controlled by the brother and sister of the Head of State is the Central Bank of Congo (BCC), run until July 2021 by Deogratias Mutombo, a close friend of Joseph Kabila .

The Congo Hold-up documents show that the BCC paid,

via

the BGFI, 51.4 million dollars to Sud Oil, including 30 million suddenly on September 29, 2016,

via

a transfer entitled " 

leveling

 ". This wording seems incorrect, since a leveling usually refers to a payment between two accounts belonging to the same customer of the bank. Asked by RFI and its partners on the subject of this strange transfer, like all the others, the Central Bank and its former governor Deogratias Mutombo did not respond.

The state mining company, Gécamines, was also involved, with $ 20 million paid to Sud Oil. The chairman of its board of directors is also close to Joseph Kabila, the very influential businessman Albert Yuma. On June 13, 2016, this public company made, for example, from its account at the BGFI, a transfer of two million dollars entitled " 

advance balance on taxation

 ", that is to say the payment of a tax to the 'State. But the money lands in Sud Oil's account, with a different wording: " 

Balance withdrawal 10 million

 ". On August 2, 2017, Gécamines transfers, this time, the trifle of $ 15 million to Sud Oil. As with the $ 30 million BCC transfer, this wording, " 

payment feed to our account, 

”suggests that the state-owned company and Sud Oil are one.

Questioned by RFI and its partners, Gécamines and Albert Yuma did not follow up.

Transfer from Gécamines to Sud Oil.

CRG

Another question that Congo Hold-up asked itself: what happened to the payroll of the 925 Congolese peacekeepers operating as part of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (Minusca)? In January 2016, the UN decided to end the participation of this contingent, following allegations of rape of minors. In December 2015 and then in March 2016, the UN made two payments for a total of $ 7.3 million to the DRC, corresponding to the last reimbursement of expenses incurred for its participation in Minusca. The money is paid to the Permanent Mission of the DRC to the UN, on its account at Citibank in New York.

Asked about this situation, the Permanent Mission tells us that the DRC ambassador to the UN then received " 

from the capital

 " the order to pay "

 the arrears of rent of the Permanent Mission

 ", then to transfer the balance. , or 6.8 million euros to " 

the Central Bank of Congo (BCC)

via

BGFIBank RDC 

". The Permanent Mission specifies that it sent, the same day, “

 an official message […] to the Central Bank 

” to inform it of the transfer.

BGFI received the $ 6.8 million on May 16, 2016, but instead of crediting the BCC account, it transferred the money to Sud Oil's.

The transfer order sent on April 29, 2016 to Citibank nevertheless indicated that the money had to be transferred to the BCC account opened at the BGFI.

As on the same day, the BCC pays Sud Oil an additional 7.5 million dollars, which makes 14.3 million public money collected in the same day by Sud Oil.

Transfer of the BBC and the Permanent Mission to the UN to Sud Oil.

© CRG

Rule # 5: Impose your tax

To fill the coffers of his company Sud Oil, Francis Selemani Mtwale, boss of the BGFI, called on all the ingenuity of his bankers, to such an extent that it is sometimes difficult to determine whether the public institutions which financed the company were willing. But when analyzing Sud Oil's accounts, a question quickly arises. Have Congolese public institutions and enterprises been imposed a sort of "Kabila tax"?

In any case, on December 19, 2015, the Congolese Transport and Ports Company (SCTP) transfers, from its BGFI account, $ 1.16 million to an internal BGFI account called “ 

OAR VIP

 ”, with the wording “ 

unpaid reimbursement

 ” and “ 

notification fee

 ”, which suggests payment of bank charges. The money is actually transferred the same day by this internal account at Sud Oil and it is withdrawn in cash. When questioned, the SCTP did not respond.

We find equally suspicious movements in the National Assembly. On September 30, 2016, the BGFI withdrew from its account “

 late

payment

penalties

 ” amounting to 367 million Congolese francs ($ 375,000), without specifying what these penalties relate to. But it is indeed a new transfer to the company Sud Oil which is made that day. This amount is withdrawn in cash the same day. Questioned by RFI and its partners, Aubin Minaku and Élysée Munembwe, respectively president and quaestor of the National Assembly at the time, indicated that they did not give the BGFI "

 any transfer order [...] for the benefit of this company

 ”.

Every time the Election Commission receives a little money in 2016, it's the same mechanism. Under false names, more than a million dollars is paid from the accounts of the Ceni to that of Sud Oil. The former president of the Electoral Commission at the material time, Corneille Nangaa, refused to answer us, while the former vice-president, Norbert Basengezi, indicates that he " 

never heard of this file or of the Sud Oil company

 ”.

Some institutions have become cash cows. One of the most striking examples concerns road money, which the DRC is sorely lacking. The DRC National Road Maintenance Fund (Foner) made, from its accounts at BGFI, 21 transfers to Sud Oil and its subsidiary Kwanza between April 2015 and March 2016, for a total of $ 10.1 million. . The largest transfer, amounting to 3.1 million, was received by Kwanza on January 23, 2015, with the only wording " 

OAR / operations

 ", the name of an internal account of the BGFI from which numerous embezzlements. have been committed. On January 26, Kwanza transferred the funds to Sud Oil, which withdrew all of the three million in cash ten days later.

When questioned, the Foner did not respond, as did its director general at the time of the events, Fulgence Bamaros, a close friend of Joseph Kabila who is officially serving a three-year prison sentence for another case of embezzlement of public funds.

The South Oil galaxy © RFI

Rule # 6: Cover your rear

Everything could have continued for a long time without the intervention of a banker from the BGFI DRC who became a whistleblower: Jean-Jacques Lumumba.

Thanks to the internal documents he recovered, the “Lumumba Papers”, the Belgian newspaper

Le Soir

revealed, in October 2016, a first series of irregularities, including the money embezzled from the Céni accounts.

► To (re) read also: Lumumba Papers: Jean-Jacques Lumumba and Guylain Luwere attack the BGFI

The scandal attracts attention. In 2017, the auditors of the audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), responsible for controlling the accounts, then the management of the BGFI group in Gabon, and finally the Central Bank, all produced damning reports on the management of the BGFI DRC. "

 The sum of the weaknesses described subjects the bank to a very high exposure to operational risks, litigation, money laundering and reputation

 ", concludes the audit department of the BCC.

That year, the tide was turning for Francis Selemani Mtwale and his network. The CEO of BGFI DRC owns, with his wife, a company called Ascend Trust which has recorded entries on his account of just over 10 million, of which 9.57 come from Sud Oil. In December 2017, what remained in this account, i.e. 3.4 million, was transferred to that of another of its shell companies, Horizon Congo, also controlled by its Tanzanian collaborator David Ezekiel, the manager of Sud Oil. In the following weeks, the latter begins to withdraw all of this money in cash.

The operation is spotted by the internal audit service of the BGFI, which launches an investigation.

Their report is damning.

In addition to the suspicious invoices, the Horizon Congo account was opened in violation of procedures.

The head of internal audit, Yvon Douhore, even discovers that David Ezekiel has two different signatures: one for Sud Oil and the other for Horizon Congo.

“ 

What can cause the same person to have two different signatures?

Really ...

 ”he wrote to a colleague.

“ 

It's just unimaginable,

 ” she replies.

In April 2018, PWC auditors were interested in transactions from Gécamines account.

Among them is the so-called two million dollar tax advance that was misappropriated for the benefit of Sud Oil on June 13, 2016.

Faced with this threat, the company controlled by Francis Selemani resolves to reimburse the money. Moreau Kaghoma, director of operations at BGFI RDC, appears to be in charge of this operation. In any case, on April 13, 2018, he received an

email

from an IT specialist

confirming the completion of two transactions made on the same day but they will be backdated in Sud Oil's accounts at the BGFI. For this, according to our information, it is necessary to bypass the banking management software and intervene manually. Sud Oil reimburses two million to Gécamines which pays the money to the Central Bank, as it should have done two years earlier. On the company's account, this transaction appears under the caption “ 

EXT. ADVANCE ON SV TAX

 »On June 13, 2016. PWC auditors, who do not have access to the Congo Hold-up documents, will think that the payment from Gécamines to Sud Oil was a simple referral error, which was corrected the same day.

A week later, on April 22, 2018,

Jeune Afrique

dropped a bombshell: the magazine revealed, thanks to new documents from the “Lumumba Papers”, the payment of 7.5 million dollars made by the Central Bank to Sud Oil in May 2016. This is the first time that the existence of the company is revealed, as well as its owners: the sister of President Kabila, Gloria Mteyu, and her sister-in-law Aneth Lutale, the wife of the boss of BGFI DRC .

In Gabon, the information worries the big boss of the BGFI group, Henri-Claude Oyima, who split the next day with a very dry email to Francis Selemani Mtwale and his deputy: "

 Please confirm whether this information is proven and what is it?

 "

Two days later, the director of operations, Moreau Kaghoma, again called on the computer scientist to enter new backdated transactions directly into the management software.

There are 2018 transfers that are recorded in the computer system as 2016 transactions.

But this time, the scheme is even more sophisticated: Sud Oil does not even need to repay. The objective is to make believe that Sud Oil bought 7.5 million dollars from the Central Bank in 2016. Moreau Kaghoma therefore transfers the same amount in Congolese francs (seven billion) from Sud Oil to the BGFI account. at the Central Bank.

Reste à compenser ce paiement, pour que cela ne coûte rien à Sud Oil. Pour ce faire, Kaghoma effectue, depuis le même compte de la Banque centrale à la BGFI, cinq virements à Sud Oil, pour le même total de sept milliards de francs congolais, libellés « Cobil RDC », du nom d’une société de distribution de pétrole. On ignore si Cobil a réellement versé cet argent à Sud Oil via ce compte de la BGFI à la Banque centrale, ou s’il s’agit d’un simple jeu d’écritures. Cobil n’a pas fait suite à nos questions.

Le lendemain, 26 avril 2018, Moreau Kaghoma envoie à Francis Selemani l’explication à donner au grand patron du groupe, Henri Claude Oyima : il s’agissait d’une « opération d'adjudication (vente de devises) organisée […] par la Banque centrale du Congo », via laquelle Sud Oil a acheté 7,5 millions de dollars moyennant le paiement de sept milliards de francs congolais. Contacté par RFI et ses partenaires, Moreau Kaghoma a refusé de répondre, renvoyant vers la BGFI.

Règle #7 : Savoir quand partir

C’est sans doute le scandale de trop. Dès le 26 avril 2018, la BGFI RDC a lancé un « audit des parties liées de la banque », une manière pudique de qualifier les individus et sociétés de la famille Kabila qui y ont des comptes, au premier rang desquels la société Sud Oil. L’enquête est dirigée par le directeur de l’audit interne, Yvon Douhore.

Dès le 11 mai 2018, le gérant de Kwanza Capital, filiale de Sud Oil, ordonne à la BGFI de fermer les comptes de la société et de virer les fonds qui restent à « divers bénéficiaires », dont Sud Oil et la femme de Francis Selemani pour le paiement de loyers et la Direction générale des recettes de Kinshasa (DGRK) pour payer l’impôt sur les revenus locatifs pour des biens avenue Tombalbaye et à la Cité du Fleuve, une cité résidentielle prisée par les dignitaires du régime Kabila.

De son côté, le gérant de Sud Oil, David Ezekiel, commence, lui, à retirer du liquide du compte de la société. Le chef de l’audit interne découvre alors, ahuri, qu’Ezekiel ne se rend pas à la banque lui-même pour effectuer les retraits. Le cash est directement prélevé par le directeur des opérations, Moreau Kaghoma, et les signatures régularisées seulement a posteriori. « Prière d’instruire le client qu'il se présente lui-même au niveau des caisses (caisses gros paiements) pour effectuer ses opérations de retraits », ordonne Yvon Douhore. Il demande qu’une « surveillance renforcée » soit mise en place sur le compte de Sud Oil.

All these maneuvers will not be enough to save Francis Selemani Mtwale.

On May 2, 2018, the CEO of the BGFI group, Henri-Claude Oyima, flew to Kinshasa to attend a board of directors of BGFIBank RDC.

He announces the departure of the general manager.

Officially, the adoptive brother of the president is “promoted”, to an unspecified position, at the headquarters of the BGFI group in Libreville.

BGFIBank logo.

© PPLAAF

Despite the irregularities detected, no sanction has been taken by the BGFI group against the managers of its Congolese subsidiary.

No report is made to justice.

Asked about this, the CEO of the BGFI group, Henri-Claude Oyima, did not respond.

Le rapport final sur les « parties liées », envoyé à la direction du groupe BGFI à Libreville en juillet 2018, minimise le rôle de Francis Selemani et l’emprise de la famille Kabila sur la banque.

Le laxisme est tel que malgré ce rapport d’audit, l’opération d’exfiltration des fonds du clan Kabila continue, alors même que ces retraits massifs mettent en péril la trésorerie de la BGFI RDC.

Le 11 juillet, le gérant de Sud Oil, David Ezekiel, envoie au nouveau directeur général de la banque Abdel Kader Diop, à la suite de leur « échange de ce jour », un « préavis de retrait » de 15 millions de dollars en liquide sur les comptes de Sud Oil, qu’il compte effectuer en quatre fois dans la semaine à venir.

Dès le lendemain, M. Ezekiel retire quatre millions de dollars en liquide, alors que le compte est en « blocage direction générale » dans le logiciel de gestion des données. Le directeur des opérations, Moreau Kaghoma a levé ce blocage manuellement et recommence le 13 juillet pour cinq millions supplémentaires. Neuf millions sont donc retirés en liquide en deux jours.

Le 16 juillet, le directeur de l’audit interne de la BGFI RDC informe son supérieur au Gabon que Sud Oil et Kwanza « sont dans un processus de retrait de leurs avoirs ». Le sujet est discuté le jour même au comité de trésorerie de la banque où Moreau Kaghoma est critiqué pour avoir autorisé les retraits. Le directeur général de la BGFI RDC, Abdel Kader Diop, lui ordonne dans la foulée de ne pas recommencer. Mais le lendemain, M. Kaghoma écrit un mail explosif à M. Diop qui rappelle son implication : « J’implore votre protection », écrit-il, rappelant au directeur général que c’est lui-même et son adjoint qui ont autorisé les retraits.

Les banquiers de la BGFIBank impliqués dans le dossier Sud Oil ont peu à peu disparu des organigrammes de la banque. Depuis sa « promotion » en mai 2018 au siège du groupe BGFI au Gabon, Francis Selemani est resté très discret. Ni lui ni la banque n’ont souhaité nous indiquer s’il travaille toujours pour la BGFI. Il est resté injoignable.

Qu’il soit encore banquier ou non, le frère adoptif du président Kabila n’a, en tout cas, pas de soucis à se faire d’un point de vue financier. Les documents Congo Hold-up montrent que Sud Oil a versé 12 millions de dollars à Francis Selemani Mtwale et à ses sociétés. Une partie au moins de ces fonds sont issus des 93 millions de dollars de fonds publics obtenus par Sud Oil, notamment ceux issus de la Banque centrale et de l’ONU.

Avec cet argent, l’ancien patron de la BGFI RDC et son épouse ont acheté, directement ou par le biais de sociétés et de trusts, pas moins de dix-sept biens immobiliers aux États-Unis et en Afrique du Sud pour un montant total de 6,6 millions de dollars.

L’autre grand bénéficiaire du réseau Sud Oil est l’ancien président du conseil d’administration de la BGFIBank RDC : Pascal Kinduelo. Le fondateur de Sud Oil et actionnaire de Kwanza Capital à l’époque des faits a reçu de cette banque et d’une autre société associée, Sezo, plus de neuf millions de dollars qu’il a retirés en liquide : trois millions le 19 novembre 2014 et six millions le 10 septembre 2018. Lui non plus n’a pas souhaité répondre aux questions soulevées par cette enquête. Dans une vidéo promotionnelle publiée sur internet au début de l’année 2021, intitulée Le légendaire entrepreneur congolais, M. Kinduelo était présenté comme l’un de ces « véritables self-made men qui ont bâti leur fortune à la sueur de leur front et non en dépouillant les caisses de l’État ».

► To read also: the Médiapart survey

For her part, Gloria Mteyu, sister of Joseph Kabila and former shareholder of Sud Oil, for her part, would have cut ties with BGFI DRC, of ​​which she had obtained 40% of the capital for free in 2012. Internal sources told us that the BGFI group would now own 100% of the shares of the Congolese subsidiary, and Ms. Mteyu told Reuters in 2016 that she had "

no financial stake related to the bank

".

Reached by phone, she refused to answer us.

Newsletter

Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • our selection

  • DRC

  • Joseph Kabila

  • Congo Hold-up