Sonya Rowland claimed she didn't know the sources of money were corrupt
Former Miss France accused of receiving a gift worth one million euros
Sonia Roland received an apartment from the late President of Gabon.
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Sonya Roland.
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French authorities have accused former Miss France Sonia Roland, 41, of receiving an apartment gift worth one million euros from the late Gabonese president, Omar Bongo, who some circles claim made a large fortune through corrupt methods, and the authorities accused Roland of taking advantage of Bongo's illegal gains. , who allegedly received hundreds of millions of euros as part of deals to sell his country's raw materials, particularly oil.
Roland, who won the Miss France title in 2000, six years after her family fled the genocide in Rwanda, admitted that she was "naive" to accept the apartment in Paris from Bongo, but denied any wrongdoing.
French media reported that the prosecution had begun procedures to confiscate property.
Transparency International filed a lawsuit in 2008 against Bongo and two other African rulers, Teodoro Obiang, 79, who has been president of Equatorial Guinea since 1979, and Denis Sassou Nguesso, 78, who has been head of state in the Republic of the Congo since 1997.
The Anti-Corruption Association alleged that African leaders used the proceeds of corruption to buy real estate, luxury cars and other assets in France.
Bongo served as President of Gabon for nearly 42 years before his death at the age of 73 in 2009. He was succeeded by his son Ali, now 63.
Police say Bongo bought at least 39 properties worth 85 million euros in France, including a 20 million-euro mansion in Paris, and apartments and other homes he gave to his family and friends, such as Roland.
Roland met the leader of the small West African country after winning the Miss France title.
The late president's wife, Edith Bongo, asked Roland to organize the Miss Gabon pageant.
"This year, Edith Bongo told me she would give me a gift in exchange for passing on a beautiful picture of their country," Roland told Liberation.
"Edith said I was their pride and happiness, she considered me her little sister."
A Paris lawyer called her in 2003 and told her that the Bongo family had given her a 75% stake in a sukuk company for an apartment being built in the capital's ultra-chic 16th district.
The remaining 25% belonged to one of Bongo's aides.
The apartment, which was completed in 2006, cost 640,000 euros at the time and is now worth more than 1 million euros, and is still in Roland's possession.
under investigation
Prosecutors this week placed the former beauty queen under formal investigation for receiving embezzled public funds.
They say she should have known that the apartment had been financed through corruption, especially since the French oil company Elf Aquitaine was at the center of a trial over allegations of embezzlement in West Africa, particularly Gabon.
She may face a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, but is likely to receive a fine and suspended prison sentence if found guilty.
Her lawyer, Charles Morell, denied the allegations.
"My client was 22 years old at the time, and she was thrust into a world she knew nothing about and now realizes that she was naive," he says.
Four of Bongo's 54 sons, Grace 58, Betty 55, Arthur 51, and Hermine 53, were charged with the same crime last month.
Prosecutors say they also suspect that Ali Bongo profited from his father's ill-gotten gains, but they cannot indict him because he enjoys presidential immunity, and all Bongo sons deny any wrongdoing.
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