President of the Republic of Congo, spent 1.18 million euros on
suits and shirts over six years as part of 60 million euros he and his family
pumped into luxury items and property in France, French investigators find as
part of probe into African leaders.
Judges have been inquiring into the source of money spent in
France by Denis Sassou Nguesso and his family as part of a widening
investigation into the misuse of funds by African leaders.
After seizing a string of luxury assets belonging to the son of
president Obiang this year and issuing an international warrant for his arrest,
French investigators have now turned their attentions to Mr Sassou-Nguesso and
his extended family.
In drawing up a list of assets, they were intrigued to discover
that Mr Sassou-Nguesso spent 1.18 million euros between 2005 and 2011 on shirts
and suits at the Pape boutique in Paris’ select 7th arrondissement. He paid via
wire transfers from a Swiss bank account.
In the same period, his son, Denis Christel Sassou-Nguesso
forked out almost 474,000 euros almost entirely on shirts. “He changes shirts
three or four times a day and boasts that he never washes them and uses them as
Kleenexes,” a former aide to the presidential clan is cited as telling police
by Libération newspaper.
The son, who is also director general upstream of Congo’s
national petrol company, SNPC, is the proud owner of at least seven cars in
Paris, including a Porsche Cayenne, a Maserati and a Bentley coupé, while
another clothes bill for jewel-studded cufflinks and shirts comes to 257,000
euros.
Police came up across around 20 luxury properties belonging to
the Sassou-Nguesso family in the most chic of Paris districts. The son, for
example, spent eight million euros on renovating a Parisian flat and a mansion
in Neuilly-sur-Seine, the western suburb, in the style of “Napoleon Empire”.
In all, police believe the Sassou-Nguesso family spent around 60
million euros on properties and luxury items.
Jean-Pierre Versini-Campinchi, a lawyer acting for
Congo-Brazzaville, threatened France with legal action, saying : « The legal
procedure pursued by France is illegal with regard to international law as
French courts have no right to probe the public accounts of a foreign sovereign
state.”
“Other petrol state leaders and their relatives spend far
greater sums in France without being troubled,” he added.
“After Guinea, next year will be the year of Sassou and Bongo,”
said William Bourdon, lawyer for Transparency International, an anti-corruption
campaign group which alleges the leaders and their relatives spent state funds
from their countries on lavish purchases in France.
The French probe was initiated following a complaint by Sherpa,
another NGO, in 2007.
Detectives have already listed more than 40 properties belonging
to the family of the late Mr Bongo, including two multimillion-pound villas in
Nice.
In June, a Paris appeals court upheld the application of an
international arrest warrant for Teodorin Obiang Mangue on money laundering
charges.
The court also upheld a decision to seize the 42-year old
playboy’s pied à terre at 42 Avenue Foch, estimated to be worth up to 150
million euros. The building contains a disco, cinema, steam baths, sauna, hair
salon, gold- and jewel-encrusted taps, lift and pink marble dining room with
coral pillars and 20-yard glass table.
Fraud squad officers carted off a Rodin statue, 300 bottles of
of chateau Petrus wine worth 2.1 million euros and 18.5 million euros worth of
art works bought from the 2009 sale of Yves Saint Laurent’s private collection.
The furniture alone, mostly collector’s items, is estimated to
be worth 40 million euros.
“There will be no immunity for those who pillage the resources
of their country,” Mr Bourdon told Libération.
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