A FRENCH judge has launched an inquiry into embezzlement of public funds against two of France’s closest allies in Africa, in a case with wide-ranging political and legal implications.
Judge Françoise Desset, the senior investigating magistrate at the “financial pole” of the Paris Palais de Justice, opened the preliminary investigation on Tuesday evening, in response to a lawsuit filed by the French branch of the anti-corruption watch-dog Transparency International.
The lawsuit targets Omar Bongo, president of Gabon since 1967, Denis Sassou-Nguesso, who took power in the Republic of Congo for the second time in 1997, and Teodoro Obiang, the ruler of Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish possession. Gabon and Congo are former French colonies, and the accusations against their leaders are more serious than those against Mr Obiang.
The case is known here as “the affair of the ill-gotten goods”. The presidents, their families and associates – totalling dozens of people in each state – are accused of using government funds to buy luxury homes and cars, including Bugattis and Ferraris, and to fatten bank accounts in France.
Mr Bongo and his family reportedly own 39 properties, including a villa near the Champs-Élysées purchased in 2007, and hold 70 bank accounts in France. The Sassou-Nguessos have 24 properties and 112 bank accounts. The Obiangs spent more than €4 million on four limousines in Paris.
In January, author Pierre Péan revealed that French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner was paid €4.6 million by the governments of Gabon and Congo for consultancy work. Mr Kouchner did not deny this, but said he had a right to work as a consultant when not in government and that he shared the payments with colleagues.
With the foreign minister indebted to two African heads of state who could come to trial in France, the conflict of interest is obvious. “There is a moral question,” says Antoine Glaser, an expert on Africa and co-author of Sarko in Africa.
“They’re on first name terms. Kouchner is obliged to Bongo. In our book, we explain that Kouchner had a lot of contracts with presidential offices in Africa.”
Mr Bongo “has done countless favours for French governments over 50 years, not all of it money”, Mr Glaser said. “For example, when Carla Bruni-Sarkozy wanted to meet Nelson Mandela, Bongo organised it. If the rebels took over in Chad and the French needed to evacuate their citizens, they’d do it through Libreville.”
Legal sources say the French public prosecutor is almost certain to block proceedings for the next six months by appealing Judge Desset’s decision. The public prosecutor answers directly to the justice minister, who answers directly to President Nicolas Sarkozy. Two similar lawsuits against African rulers were shut down by the prosecutor’s office in 2007 and 2008.
“An appeal aimed at putting a lid on this investigation . . . would make a mockery of President Sarkozy’s commitments at the G20 against tax havens, financial crime and international fraud,” said William Bourdon, Transparency International’s French lawyer. If the prosecutor appeals, the case will be considered by an independent committee of magistrates in autumn. The prosecutor argues that under French law, Transparency is not a legitimate plaintiff as it was not harmed by the alleged embezzlement.
Transparency says the three presidents’ holdings could not possibly be the fruit of legal salaries, and that corruption in their states has deprived millions of Africans of education and medical care. “This is a historical decision that announces the end of impunity for corrupt leaders in the world,” said Daniel Lebègue, the head of the group’s French branch.