Corruption in the Congo-Brazzaville

Congo-Brazzaville has large oil reserves, but almost half of its people live in poverty.

The son of Congo-Brazzaville’s president has stolen $50m (£41m) of public money by routing it through shell companies and secrecy jurisdictions, according to a new investigation.

Six countries in the EU, the US state of Delaware and the British Virgin Islands all played a key role in Denis Christel Sassou-Nguesso’s scheme, according to Global Witness. Global Witness said he used it to make payments to companies based in Poland, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. The alleged embezzlement dates from 2013 and 2014.

The campaign group said the money was siphoned off through an apparent sham contract Congo-Brazzaville had with a Brazilian infrastructure company.

The money-laundering scheme said to have been used by Sassou-Nguesso, an MP as well as the son and namesake of the man who has spent 35 years as president, is similar to the one his sister Claudia allegedly used to steal $20m of state funds, part of which she used to buy a luxury apartment in Trump Tower in New York.

“As we followed the trail of money we found that it was funnelled through several jurisdictions which pride themselves on having strong anti-money laundering regimes, such as the EU and the US,” said Mariana Abreu, who led the investigation.

A Portuguese businessman who is already under investigation for corruption, José Veiga, allegedly facilitated part of the money-laundering, by helping secure public works contracts in Congo-Brazzaville for the Brazilian company Asperbras.

According to Global Witness, Asperbras was contracted to carry out a geological survey, and subcontracted part of the work to a Cypriot company called Gabox Limited, despite the fact that Gabox had been set up just two days before the deal was signed, and had no employees or capital. Gabox was to receive 25% of what Asperbras got from the Congolese government – $50m of the $200m that the Swiss NGO Public Eye said the project was worth.

The global financial system is supposed to prevent corrupt politicians from robbing their citizens, but there are significant loopholes. An estimated $90bn is laundered through the UK every year.