According to information from Mediapart and Africa Intelligence, the national financial prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation following the revelations of the “Congo Hold Up” investigation. He wonders about flows judged ” suspects between the subsidiaries of this bank in the DRC and France.
The preliminary investigation of the French justice relates to facts of ” aggravated laundering of embezzlement of public funds “. It follows the revelations of the investigation conducted by 23 media and NGOs, including RFI, and two complaints filed by three organizations: Sherpa, Transparency International and the Pan-African Anti-Corruption Network (UNIS).
Investigation “ Congo Heist » showed, with the support of 3.5 million bank documents, how the BGFI had been used by the entourage of Joseph Kabila to divert at least 138 million dollars from the public coffers.
Hijacked public money laundering
The Congolese subsidiary of BGFIBank was run until 2018 by an adoptive brother of the ex-president, Francis Selemani Mtwale, and 40% owned by Gloria Mteyu, the sister of Joseph Kabila. This subsidiary is said to have laundered embezzled public money on several occasions, through BGFIBank Europe, based in Paris and authorized to carry out international transactions in foreign currencies.
The investigation for example showed, and this is the specific subject of one of the two complaints, that Congolese public money had been used in the transformation of a ship into a luxury yacht for the benefit of men of matters related to the former president.
► To read also: Congo Hold-up: BGFIBank, the bank of presidents