In France, the newspaper Release published an article on investigations carried out in France concerning the oil trading company Orion oil and its manager Lucien Ebata. Does it serve to siphon off the national oil company for the benefit of its leaders and those of the country? In any case, this is what the French investigators think, according to the daily. Lucien Ebata, also already implicated in the tax evasion scandal Panama paperswas indicted in October 2021 by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office for ” failure to declare capital », « whitening ” and ” active bribery “. Following a large-scale investigation started in 2012 with his arrest at Roissy airport in possession of very large sums of undeclared money.
During their investigation, according to Release, the French judicial customs carried out searches in May 2017 at the Parisian homes of Lucien Ebata, and the financial director of Orion Oil. They discover a total of several hundred thousand euros and dollars in cash, and as many in luxury watches, jewelry and leather goods.
Mainly, according to Releasethe investigators got their hands on a digital tablet and a diary listing the sums withdrawn from the company’s accounts: 164 million dollars and 26 million euros in cash were reportedly recovered in several African banks between 2013 and 2016.
The Orion group, a front company?
They also find a list of potential beneficiaries, in Congo-Brazzaville, in the DRC, but also in France.
Some payments are supplemented with a “PR” annotation… Always according to Release, the French investigators do not doubt that it is the President of the Republic, Denis Sassou N’Guesso. They advance the total sum of 37 million dollars and also implicate the ex-minister of Finance, Calixte Nganongo, and the head of the national oil company of Congo, Raoul Ominga.
For French customs, the Orion group would be a shell company responsible for collecting revenues from the Congolese oil trade, and redistributing them.
To (re) read ► Congolese businessman Lucien Ebata indicted in Paris
Lucien Ebata’s lawyer, Maître Antoine Vey, firmly denies Release the existence of kickbacks, and denounces ” oil groups seeking to maintain their pre-square, and have always acted to harm the development of the Orion group and the reputation of its leader “.
Contacted by RFI, the Congolese authorities indicated that they would react in the coming hours.