For the Bongo dynasty, after the time of power will perhaps come that of the courts. The coup d’état which deposed Ali Bongo Ondimba on August 30 reshuffled the political cards so much that it could relaunch the legal cases. While at least nine of his brothers and sisters, all children of former president Omar Bongo Ondimba, were indicted for concealment of “embezzlement of public funds”, “active and passive corruption”, “money laundering” and ” abuse of corporate assets” by French justice, Ali Bongo Ondimba himself is no longer immune from prosecution.
The investigation into this so-called “ill-gotten gains” case began in France following a complaint filed in 2007 by Transparency International, supported by the NGO Sherpa. Members of the Bongo family are suspected by French justice of having “knowingly” benefited from real estate assets “fraudulently” purchased in France by their father, who ruled Gabon from 1967 until his death in 2009.
“It is still a little early to know what the impact of the coup will be on the rest of the procedure,” says Me Vincent Brengarth, lawyer for Transparency International and member of the Bourdon law firm.
Since the putsch, Ali Bongo Ondimba has lived under house arrest. The deposed president is “free to move” and can “go, if he wishes, abroad to carry out his medical checks” to treat the after-effects of the stroke he suffered in 2018 , said Brice Oligui Nguema, his distant cousin who succeeded him as head of the country as part of a transition, the duration of which he did not specify, on September 6.
“Ali Bongo Ondimba does not appear today in any proceedings linked to the ill-gotten gains affair,” assures a source close to the case. But, according to the Gabonese Constitution, he lost his immunity the day his successor was sworn in [September 4]. Ali Bongo is therefore no longer untouchable and legal action can be taken against him. It is up to French justice to decide. »
“Oil company corruption offense”
French justice is investigating the acquisition of properties including around thirty apartments, villas and mansions located in the upscale districts of Paris but also in Nice, recently valued “at at least 85 million euros”. According to a judgment of the Paris Court of Appeal published in February 2022, this fortune of the Bongo Ondimba, in power in Gabon for fifty-five years, would come from “money resulting from embezzlement of public funds and considerable sums resulting from crime corruption of oil companies”. Among them is the company Elf-Aquitaine, now TotalEnergies.
Indicted in March 2022 by judge Dominique Blanc, Grace, Betty, Arthur and Hermine Bongo all contested having knowledge of the fraudulent nature of the fortune of their father, a key figure in Françafrique, this postcolonial system mixing secret diplomacy, contracts juicy and kickbacks.
Pascaline Bongo (former chief of staff of her father), Omar Denis Jr Bongo (also grandson of Congolese President Denis Sassou-Nguesso), Jeanne and Joseph Matoua, children of Omar Bongo with Patricia Thérèse Matoua, were for their part indicted in July 2022, notably for “concealment of embezzlement of public funds”. It was then the last known act of the sprawling case known as “ill-gotten gains”, investigated since the end of 2022 by judge Serge Tournaire and also targeting the families of Denis Sassou-Nguesso and Teodoro Obiang, respective presidents of Congo-Brazzaville and Equatorial Guinea.
In addition to the Bongo children, around fifteen other individuals are being prosecuted, including several French nationals including a lawyer, a notary or a real estate company manager, as well as BNP Paribas, indicted in May 2021 for money laundering of “at least €35 million”.
“The Gabonese people expect strong gestures”
In Libreville, certain dignitaries of the Ali Bongo Ondimba regime are already the subject of prosecution. After the incarceration of Noureddin Bongo Valentin, son of the deposed president, prosecuted, in particular, for “massive embezzlement of public funds” and “international financial embezzlement by an organized gang”, three other personalities were placed under arrest warrant at the central prison de Gros-Bouquet, Saturday September 23.
Vincent de Paul Massassa, minister of oil since 2019, Leon Armel Bonda Balondzi, former minister of public works, and businessman Abdoul Houssein Moussavou were imprisoned. These arrests follow those of around ten other people close to the regime arrested on the same day of the coup. Broadcast on television, the searches carried out at the homes of these young senior officials showed suitcases and trunks overflowing with bank notes.
“The Gabonese population expects strong gestures and the junta wants to give them,” notes Me Vincent Brengarth. But there are also strong suspicions of corruption hanging over the president of the junta in the United States. » According to Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a group of journalists specializing in investigation, Brice Oligui Nguema is said to have purchased three properties near Washington in cash for a total amount of more than $1 million (€94 million). ) between 2015 and 2018. “A private life is a private life that must be respected,” the current president of the Gabonese transition responded to suspicions of corruption.