Congo hold-up: three million dollars of public money withdrawn in cash by the financial director of Kabila

Egal company building in the DRC.

© RFI

Text by: Sonia Rolley Follow

5 mins

The Congo Hold-up investigation reveals that of the 43 million dollars embezzled as part of the Egal scandal, 3.3 million landed on an account of the Presidency of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

This transfer made it possible to compensate for a cash withdrawal made by the financial director of President Joseph Kabila.

Survey with Médiapart, BBC, PPLAAF and the European network EIC.

Advertising

Read more

The Egal scandal directly splashes the former president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Joseph Kabila and his inner circle.

As

revealed

, this Congolese fish and meat import company, in the hands of very close friends of former President Kabila, is at the heart of a judicial investigation in Kinshasa on the embezzlement of at least 43 million dollars from the coffers of the Central Bank of Congo (BCC).

But that's not all.

Immediately after receiving these public funds, Egal returned $ 3.3 million to the account at the BGFI of the Presidency of the Republic, and this money paid off a cash withdrawal of $ 2.8 million made by Emmanuel Adrupiako, President Kabila's financial adviser.

This is revealed by this new part of the “Congo hold-up” survey, based on 3.5 million documents from the BGFI bank, obtained by PPLAAF and Mediapart and analyzed by 24 international media and NGOs coordinated by the EIC.

At the time, President Kabila, who left power in January 2019, was at home at BGFI DRC, whose director general was his adoptive brother

.

On June 8, 2011, the Presidency of the Republic opened an account with the BGFI and deposited there 10,000 dollars in cash.

The account then remained completely inactive for two years.

Until Emmanuel Adrupiako withdrew nearly three million dollars in cash at the end of May 2013.

Emmanuel Adrupiako is not just anyone: a memo from the BGFI indicates that he is the “

”, and that “

”. He is also one of the founders of Joseph Kabila's political party, the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD).

He is also at the heart of a Belgian judicial investigation for corruption and money laundering, concerning the scandal of the attribution, in 2015, of the contract for the manufacture of passports from the DRC to Semlex. This Belgian company had

having paid, via offshore companies, 700,000 dollars to Emmanuel Adrupiako, without specifying the purpose. 

, Emmanuel Adrupiako assured that the 700,000 dollars which were paid to him in 2015 have nothing to do with the passport contract but they would result, according to him, from the payment of rent.

On 23, 24 and 27 May 2013, the financial director of Joseph Kabila withdrew, in three installments, 2.8 million in cash from the account of the presidency at the BGFI.

The day after the last withdrawal, the mechanism, which will allow Egal to benefit from $ 43 million in public money, is set in motion.

On May 28, 2013, Egal signed a debt assignment agreement with Afritec, another company controlled by relatives of Joseph Kabila.

The objective of the operation: to get the State to recognize a fictitious claim against Afritec, which will transfer it to Egal.

Which will therefore receive 43 million public money, used as collateral for a loan granted by the BGFI.

► 

The agreement of May 28, 2013 provides that Equal undertakes to reimburse $ 40 million to Afritec, ie 3 million less than what the State is prepared to grant on the basis of this fictitious claim. 

Was the withdrawal of 3 million by Emmanuel Adrupiako from the Presidency's account taken into account from the start of the operation?

The leaders of Afritec, Alain Wan and Marc Piedboeuf, did not respond to our questions.

In any case, on June 10, 2013, a letter from the Minister of Finance formalizes this claim.

On July 26, the BGFI grants a first loan to Egal.

And on November 29, the Central Bank of Congo pledged $ 43 million as collateral for this loan to Egal from its account at BGFI - a slush fund created for the occasion.

►

On December 23, two weeks after this payment, Egal transfers $ 3.3 million to the Presidency's account, which exactly compensates for the overdraft caused by the cash withdrawal made six months earlier by Adrupiako, and the banknotes.

Since there was only $ 10,000 in the account at the time, the withdrawal of $ 2.8 million caused a hole in the same amount.

It was not without costs: penalties were recorded for a total of $ 550,000 in seven months.

Which brought the overdraft to 3.3 million.

By resetting this account to zero on December 23, Egal therefore used the embezzled public money to finance the cash withdrawal.

When questioned, the Central Bank, the BGFI and Joseph Kabila did not respond. Emmanuel Adrupiako did not wish to answer our questions. His lawyer told our partner PPLAAF that our questions "

" Mr. Adrupiako in view of the Congolese law which defines the responsibilities in terms of the use of public funds, and that our article "will

”.

Equal denies having "

", recalls having been "

" by the head of the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF), and refused to comment further because the ongoing judicial investigation into this case “

”. 

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

• DRC

• Congo Hold-up

• Joseph Kabila

On the same subject

Congo Hold-up: meeting between BGFIBank and the DRC General Inspectorate of Finance

DRC: reactions multiply after the revelations of the Congo Hold-up investigation

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