Congo Hold-up: how are the most beautiful tours in Kinshasa financed?

The Congo World Trade Center in Kinshasa, DRC.

© RFI

Text by: Sonia Rolley Follow

13 mins

The leak of millions of banking documents and transactions at BGFI Bank reveals more than one secret about the inner workings of certain companies.

For four years, Modern Construction and several of its sister companies had their accounts housed in this bank.

We owe to these companies two of the most beautiful towers in Kinshasa: Kiyo Ya Sita or the Congo Trade Center.

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At night, it's impossible to miss Kiyo Ya Sita.

Planted on the bubbling Boulevard du 30 Juin, in the heart of Kinshasa, capital of the

, this 16-storey tower becomes multicolored and is displayed from every point of view: its name, 364, its number on the boulevard, the numbers of its promoters ...

Originally, it was a project of Congolese banker Pascal Kinduelo, who is also the chairman of the board of directors of

 and other companies linked to the clan of former president

.

In the middle of an election year, in 2011, Mr. Kinduelo joined forces with a young Indian entrepreneur, Harish Jagtani, to create the Financial and Real Estate Industry (IFI).

This businessman, at the time established for less than fifteen years in the Congo, was best known for his air freight company Services Air and for his friendships with the former first lady Olive Lembe di Sita.

Several of their relatives assure that this tower, literally called the “reflection of Sita”, is dedicated to the former first lady.

From the streets in Kinshasa to the upscale circles of the Congolese capital, we even readily attribute to “Maman Olive” all or part of the ownership of this luxurious building.

Mr. Jagtani denies it.

The Kiyo Ya Sita building, in the DRC.

© RFI

Rule # 1: Find a bank favorable to your project

All these companies linked to Mr. Jagtani set up their accounts at BGFI Bank in 2011 and this is probably no coincidence.

At the time, Services Air won more than four million air freight orders as part of the organization of the presidential and legislative elections of 2011.

The Congo Hold-up investigation established that part of the funds allocated to the 2011 elections had directly or indirectly benefited not only IFI, but also its big sister Modern Construction, of which Harish Jagtani is one of the shareholders.

Created in 2009 with three other Indian businessmen, this construction company has its own projects, Modern Paradise and the imposing Congo Trade Center (CTC), ideally located on the banks of the Congo River.

To Modern Construction's dollar account, a total of 32 million is credited between January 2011 and April 2015. Over 2 million are clerical errors. 1.9 million is paid there in cash. There are also transfers from Services Air and Serve Air Limited, which come indirectly from the Congolese electoral center. Finally, there are funds transferred from accounts housed at Clariden Leu. This bank, taken over by Credit Suisse since 2012, had been pinned down by Public Eye, one of the NGO partners of Congo Hold-up, in a gloomy affair of commissions paid to neighboring Congo-Brazzaville.

From this Swiss bank, an account called "KAMAL NANDLAL RAWTANI AND RHEA" transfers to Modern Construction nearly $ 840,000.

Kamal Nandlal Rawtani is the real name of "Kenny" Rawtani, Harish Jagtani's brother-in-law.

Between March and June 2017, before the arrival of funds from the electoral center, this family contribution was the main source of funding for Modern Construction's dollar account.

Mr. Harish Jagtani explains the source of this money by selling land.

The rest of the sums credited to this Modern Construction dollar account are the result of loans and lines of credit from the BGFI Bank and the repayment of a deposit of 10 million dollars, the source of which we have been able to trace.

► To read also: Congo Hold-up: BGFIBank, the bank of presidents

How were these loans obtained? Modern Construction begins the year 2011 by requesting a line of credit of $ 2.5 million from BGFI Bank RDC. Seven months later, she won another, ten times larger from the BGFI group. The head office in Gabon and various subsidiaries grant it a $ 25 million line of credit. Between the two, the relationship between Mr. Jagtani, co-shareholder of Modern Construction, and Mr. Kinduelo, chairman of the board of directors of the bank in Kinshasa, was formalized within the company Financial and real estate industry (IFI ). Services Air began, without even a contract, to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars from the electoral center. Mr. Jagtani is on the rise at BGFI.

This important line of credit is not granted without guarantees.

They are even multiple.

Modern Construction must deposit into a blocked account at BGFI $ 10 million.

But there is also the mortgage of a building with an " 

 ", an " 

 ", an " 

”.

This is what was provided for in the document officializing on September 21, 2011, the obtaining of this line of credit of $ 25 million for one year from the BGFI group.

It is signed by the CEO of the BGFI Bank group, Henri-Claude Oyima, and Harish Jagtani himself.

The Congo Trade Center, in the DRC.

© RFI

Rule # 2: Identify the right partners

Three months later, on December 13, 2011, a deposit of 10 million dollars of guarantee was indeed made on an account created for this operation: “BGFIBANK OPERATIONS MC”.

Serve Air Limited, a Switzerland-based company of Mr. Jagtani, is contributing $ 5 million into it despite having no official connection to Modern Construction.

These five million represent the contribution of two of its associates, Harish Jagtani and Gidwani Sachin Mohanlal, who each hold, in a personal capacity, 25% of the shares of this company.

They are also partners in the Air Services group.

A mysterious company domiciled in Mauritius, Overseas Juline Ltd, pays the remaining 5 million. It was in the early 2000s that this small island located in the Indian Ocean became a popular destination for the creation of offshore companies. And Mr. Jagtani's associates seem fond of it. Overseas Juline Ltd was registered there in 2003. The one who became its director in 2009, Nazim Charania, is unknown in Congo. Yet it was in Kinshasa that he founded with friends one of the most flourishing associations in Central Africa, although unknown: the Sanzi Group. Since 2012, Nazim Charania has created Noble Group, with its chain of stores, Angola Mart. It has established itself as one of the country's main importers.

Like Harish Jagtani, Mr. Charania immigrated to Kinshasa in the second half of the 1990s. He first worked in the informal sector in markets and warehouses in the capital.

It was there that he met Harish Jagtani, as well as those who would become his associates within Group SNS: Sajid Dhrolia and Salim Kamani.

The name of Group SNS comes from the initials of their first names: Nazim, Sajid, Salim.

But only Sajid Dhrolia is officially associated with Modern Construction with 25% of the shares.

The fourth partner, Aziz Answar Kamani, Salim's brother, owns the last quarter.

► To read also: DRC: Harish Jagtani, the Indian businessman "friend" of the Kabila?

When we discuss with Mr. Jagtani the role of Group SNS in the financing of Modern Construction and its towers, he denies any link: “

”. Asked about the fact that BGFI Bank presented him in 2011 as an associate of the Sanzi group, which became Group SNS, Mr. Harish Jagtani denied.

His former partner Sajid Dhrolia explains bluntly having lent the amount of the deposit to Modern Construction and that Overseas Juline Ltd is a company he shares with his friends from the Sanzi Group, but that their association was not at this time formalized.

“

 ” says Dhrolia.

"

 ."

As revealed by

in 2020, Messrs Jagtani and Dhrolia have nothing to envy to the success of Nazim Charania in Angola.

Since 2011, like him, they have come a long way and have become key players in the construction sector by building dozens of luxury towers and residences not only in Kinshasa, but also in Lubumbashi and Kolwezi, the two main Congolese mining towns. .

The partners of Modern Construction have decided to go their separate ways, but their trajectory is similar.

When in 2019, “Harry” signed a contract with the American hotel chain Hilton for a hotel in Kinshasa, the second nicknamed “Saju” won a contract to build three hotels for the French brand Accor and built the first water park in Congo.

The Aqua Splash water park, in the DRC.

© RFI

Rule # 3: Never run out of liquidity

Even before the deposit of 10 million dollars, the credit of the BGFI begins to be released. Of the 25 million initially promised by the BGFI group, Modern Construction receives just over 11 million. The disbursements even stop very quickly, on June 15, 2012. To believe the internal letters exchanged within the BGFI on this subject, only the BGFI Brazzaville would have provided its share of the 25 million promised to Modern Construction. The other branches of the group have not kept their commitments for a reason unknown until now, the BGFI having decided not to comment on the Congo Hold-up investigation, despite our many questions.

Despite this, the amount of the deposit is maintained and Modern Construction has agreed to freeze 10 million in deposit to be lent only 11. When a year later, an internal meeting at the BGFI was held to study the relevance of renewing this loan, several departments, including that of compliance, opposed it. “ 

 ”, we can read in a report dated December 5, 2012 and adopted at the end of this meeting.

At the time, Jean-Jacques Lumumba, the first whistleblower at BGFI Bank and grand-nephew of the hero of independence, Patrice Lumumba, was number 2 in credit and he participated in this meeting. " 

 " he says. In the case of Indian businessman Harish Jagtani, Mr. Lumumba recalls that “

raised 

".

Several issues were raised during this meeting.

But the former banker of the BGFI especially points out that the guarantees provided by Modern Construction go well beyond the amount of these lines of credit and that he invests a lot of own funds of which we do not know the source.

Asked about the origin of these funds, Harish Jagtani claims to draw his money from bank loans.

In Congo, he says he worked with Rawbank, Ecobank, FNB Bank and Access Bank.

He also claims to have received 13.65 million from the BGFI within the framework of this line of credit of 25 million dollars and to have financed his part of the guarantee with loans contracted with other "

".

Harish Jagtani assures that he is doing “

”

financing operations 

.

The Indian businessman believes that " 

".

Regarding the interruption of the credit line, Mr. Jagtani said that BGFI informed him that " 

", it "

".

► To read also: Congo Hold-up: the slush fund of the Central Bank of Congo

This interruption could also be explained by the deterioration of relations between Mr. Kinduelo and his Indian partner which will lead to their rupture. It was also during this period that the old Congolese banker began to complain about the invoices presented by his young partner. He will go as far as appraising the amount of work carried out on the construction of Kiyo Ya Sita. Analysis of the accounts of their joint venture Financial and Real Estate Industry (IFI) shows that Mr. Kinduelo is investing nearly $ 3 million in this project. His Indian partner pays only 350,000 dollars by transfer. Mr. Jagtani confirms that his partner " 

" and ensures that there was the account.

There is more than one witness to tell this story because the two protagonists complained about each other to the highest authorities in the country.

In this dispute, the chairman of the board of directors of the BGFI loses the battle.

Yet he too is known to be close to Joseph Kabila.

He ended up selling everything back to Harish Jagtani and his then mostly unknown young Modern Construction associates.

Its land and its Kiyo Ya Sita tower.

Contacted, Pascal Kinduelo did not respond.

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