BNP Paribas, the leading French bank, indicted on May 11 for money laundering“At least 35 million euros” through which the Bongo family acquired villas and mansions in France, recognized “Deficiencies” but contested everything “Fraudulent design”, according to his questioning before the judge consulted by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Faced with the magistrate of the financial center of the Paris court, the representative of the bank maintained that the establishment was not aware that the Bongo family “Pulled the strings” the financial circuit and was unaware that the money came from potential embezzlement of Gabonese public funds, denouncing a “Intellectual construction” of the charge.
This questioning of the first French and European bank, revealed by AFP in mid-May, has taken a decisive step forward in this long instruction known as “ill-gotten goods” which, since 2010, has focused in particular on luxury real estate assets. acquired by the family of Omar Bongo, President of Gabon from 1967 to his death in 2009 and succeeded by his son Ali.
If no member of the family, who disputes any embezzlement, has to date been indicted, BNP Paribas is now being prosecuted for acts of “Laundering of corruption and embezzlement of public funds” in connection with the Bongo clan.
In detail, the examining magistrate Dominique Blanc suspects the bank of having allowed the Bongo family and their relatives, via a company called Atelier 74, to “Convert funds from tort into real estate transactions, up to at least 35 million euros” who would have benefited them “Directly or via structures”. All between 1996 and 2008.
But before the magistrate, the group’s legal director, Georges Dirani, said his ” incomprehension “. For him, the BNP has “Actively and transparently helped justice to clarify a number of facts”, in particular via an internal survey of 2017. This “Concluded that the Atelier 74 account had, more than ten years ago, an atypical operation, highlighting certain shortcomings”. That “Does not therefore constitute criminal offenses”, insisted Mr. Dirani.
“It is difficult to believe that the bank at this time did not ask for proof of transfer”
Atelier 74, an interior decoration company, was in charge of finding the goods for the family of the Gabonese president and renovating them for several million euros. French justice suspects the company of having received, on its accounts at BNP, money from its Africa subsidiary, via an account at BGFI, a Gabonese bank. This account received “Large numbers of cash deposits made by Omar Bongo and his relatives”.
For the judge, BNP Paribas should have “Classify” like “Sensitive” the “Known business relationship” between Atelier 74 and Omar Bongo, find that “The volume of cash was unrelated to emoluments” the president and “Came from embezzlement of public funds and acts of corruption”.
But the bank’s legal director strongly minimized the degree of knowledge that BNP had of the origin and destination of funds deposited with BGFI, a bank long linked to Paribas, until 1998. According to Mr. Dirani, “Nothing establishes” that the BNP “Would have been informed during the period (…) that the Bongo family was pulling the strings behind Atelier 74 ”.
Finally, the BNP denies having known that the bank checks that it established in France for Atelier 74 could be used “To the Bongo family [pour] acquire real estate ‘, well beyond, however, simple interior decoration services.
In the Gabonese shutter of this resounding affair, which is also interested in the patrimony of the family of Denis Sassou-Nguesso, president of Congo-Brazzaville, the investigators identified twelve properties acquired in Paris and Nice by the Bongo clan “Up to at least 35 million euros” from the 1990s. Among this heritage: two mansions in upscale districts of Paris as well as a villa in Nice.
“It is difficult to believe that the bank at this period did not ask for proof of transfer: origin of funds, the existence of contract or agreement between these two entities”, estimated the Central Office for the Repression of Major Financial Crime (OCRGDF) in a September note. The internal investigation of the BNP, which ended up pointing out the breaches, dates from 2017, six years after the first judicial requisitions, was astonished by the OCRGDF.