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PRESIDENTIAL PROFITEERING How a Company Linked to the Congolese President Stands to Earn Millions from New Fee

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PRESIDENTIAL PROFITEERING How a Company Linked to the Congolese President Stands to Earn Millions from New Fee PRESIDENTIAL PROFITEERING How a company linked to the Congolese president stands to earn millions from new fee 8 December 2020 Djeno oil terminal, Republic of Congo. Brazzaville Infos 242 via Facebook. GLOBAL WITNESS DECEMBER 2020 PRESIDENTIAL PROFITEERING 1 A company linked to Republic of from entering Canada where his wife and children Congo’s presidential family stands were based on the grounds of implication in organised financial crime. to earn almost 6 million euros ($7 million) per year from a new fee on On 20 August 2020, Copremar, which is oil tankers in what is suspected to headquartered in Pointe-Noire, Congo, be the family’s latest illicit scheme, unilaterally announced to shipping agents that, from 7 September 2020 onwards, all VLCC and Global Witness reveals. Suez Max tankers loading at Congo’s Djeno oil The revelations come months ahead of the 2021 terminal will be charged a new “safety watch fee” presidential election in which Denis Sassou- of 69,500 euros (almost $84,000), according to a Nguesso, incumbent for 36 of the past 41 years, document seen by Global Witness. will stand. In September 2020, Copremar took over towing In July, we documented how the president’s son, operations at the Djeno terminal, replacing Denis Christel Sassou-Nguesso, allegedly stole French oil major Total, the terminal’s overall millions from Congo’s national oil company, operator, Copremar informed Global Witness. which he used to buy expensive real estate and This award was made during negotiations luxury goods in the US, France and elsewhere. In between Total and the Congolese government for 2019, we revealed how Denis Christel and his the former to renew its terminal operating sister Claudia have seemingly laundered and licence, which expired on 17 November 2020, and spent up to $70m in stolen state funds. prompted the announcement of the new “safety watch fee”. Congo has oscillated in and out of debt distress since the 1980s, receiving its fourth IMF bailout in Copremar’s fee appears to be well above the 2019. This year’s oil price shock and the Covid-19 norm for such a service, according to three pandemic have sent the economy deeper into independent shipping experts consulted by crisis, straining an already massively under- Global Witness. It is between six and nine times resourced healthcare system. more expensive than the safety watch fee at the nearby Pointe-Noire port, according to Global A MARITIME WINDFALL Witness estimates based on available data (see note 3). The company in question this time is Copremar (la Congolaise des prestations maritimes), which On average, seven tankers per month loaded at is headed and majority-owned by Wilfrid Djeno from October 2014 to October 2020, Nguesso, a nephew of President Sassou-Nguesso. according to data on vessel movements from Its director in France is Nanette Nadine Refinitiv Eikon, indicating that Copremar stands Sarlabout, a niece-in-law of the president. to earn up to 5.84 million euros ($7.06 million) per year from this fee. Wilfrid, a pastor and pilot by training, has been under investigation in France since 2017 for Copremar has a monopoly over towing laundering stolen public funds, the first member operations at Djeno, meaning companies have no of the Sassou-Nguesso family to be targeted in choice but to go with their services and price if the Ill Gotten Gains (Biens mal acquis) affair. In they want to dock tankers to load crude oil, 2015, a French judge ordered the seizure of two Congo’s primary export product. properties in Paris, suspected to have been In response to questions from Global Witness, the bought and maintained by Wilfrid with lawyer representing Copremar and Sarlabout – embezzled public funds. In 2013, he was banned GLOBAL WITNESS DECEMBER 2020 PRESIDENTIAL PROFITEERING 2 who has also represented the Republic of Congo Copremar to do so. Copremar claimed its licence – said that the company does not charge a fee was granted by the Port Autonome of Pointe- “between six and nine times higher” than other Noire, but provided no evidence to support this providers, and that the size of the fee is “fully claim. justified” by the services provided, which are of a Global Witness contacted Wilfrid Nguesso via his high technical and human resource quality. lawyers, but did not receive a response. Unlike other providers, Copremar’s security provision offers three boats instead of one, and the boats are of a higher quality, the lawyer said. DÉJÀ-VU? Copremar is the sole company capable of Copremar has much in common with Socotram, providing such services, takes great care to Wilfrid Nguesso’s primary vehicle for respect the law and the trust of its clients, and embezzlement of public funds according to acts in full transparency, the lawyer added. French and Canadian judges. Contradicting Copremar’s account, Total Copremar and Socotram share a parent company informed Global Witness that its Congo (World Global Shipping – see graphic below), subsidiary TEP Congo has never been involved in beneficial owners (Wilfrid and his wife), directors towing operations or “safety watch”. Total (Wilfrid and Sarlabout) and an address in Paris. further said that it had no authority over Copremar’s decision to levy the safety watch fee Socotram’s role in Congo’s maritime oil sector and no direct knowledge of who had authorised has been questioned by Global Witness and GLOBAL WITNESS DECEMBER 2020 PRESIDENTIAL PROFITEERING 3 Congolese civil society for decades. Since being founded in Congo in 1990, the minority state- owned entity has collected millions of dollars’ worth of maritime taxes that never make it to the Treasury, according to Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) reports. Ship- owners pay these taxes to Socotram then bill them to oil companies, which are in turn reimbursed by the state. This means that the state loses out twice from Wilfrid’s profiteering: through lost tax revenue and the cost of The recent oil price shock and Covid-19 pandemic have sent reimbursement. In effect, the state is paying the Congo's already struggling economy deeper into crisis, straining its under-resourced healthcare system. Veronique Durruty via very taxes destined for its Treasury to a private Getty Images. company owned by a member of the presidential family. Both Copremar and Socotram demand payment In January, we revealed how oil companies were in euros. Both have an active branch in France being reimbursed by Congo for a vast range of where their ultimate owner, Wilfrid Nguesso, has costs, including the school fees of their been under investigation for money laundering executives’ children and signature bonuses since 2017. Both share a French parent company destined for the state – and in some cases even – World Global Shipping, previously registered as earning interest on these. Socotram’s maritime Guinea Gulf Shipping in Luxembourg and then tax can be added to that list, contributing to Cyprus. Until late 2018, Copremar was part- ballooning public debt at a time of acute owned by France’s Bourbon Corporation and the economic crisis. Swiss-Dutch Riverlake Solutions. Global Witness has been unable to verify whether Bourbon told Global Witness that it first took or not Copremar’s fee will be reimbursed by the steps to divest its interest in Copremar in state, like Socotram’s maritime tax. We wrote to September 2018, a process that wasn’t finalised Congo’s transport and merchant navy ministry until 2020 due to “commercial and administrative and to the Pointe-Noire port authorities, which hurdles”, and that it therefore has no knowledge according to Copremar issued its licence, but did of or information on the new safety watch fee. not receive a response. Riverlake, which first responded to Global Total informed Global Witness that the cost of the Witness’s request for comment with an email that fee is not re-invoiced to TEP Congo and therefore simply read “Copremar… Trouble ”, went on to cannot be recovered by TEP Congo from the explain that “Congolese interests” took over state. Riverlake’s participation in Copremar in Socotram did not respond to Global Witness’s September 2018 and that they could not request for comment. therefore comment on the safety watch fee. ALL ROADS LEAD TO EUROPE *** European jurisdictions and companies are a core Our investigation suggests that Copremar’s fee is part of Copremar and Socotram’s business the latest manifestation of Wilfrid Nguesso’s model. profiteering in Congo’s maritime oil sector and GLOBAL WITNESS DECEMBER 2020 PRESIDENTIAL PROFITEERING 4 yet another example of the presidential family’s Court. The company and eight of its staff abuse of power. are facing trial for corruption of foreign public officials, principally in Cameroon, The case exhibits multiple red flags for Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria, after its corruption, including: then finance director was caught with a suitcase full of cash at Marseille airport. > A company owned and run by multiple In February 2020, the trial was deferred members of Congo’s presidential family, for procedural irregularities. otherwise known as “politically-exposed persons” (PEPs), one of whom – Wilfrid – is 2. According to Congo’s government under investigation for money laundering in gazette, Copremar received France and banned from Canada on charges of authorization from the transport, civil organised financial crime aviation and merchant navy minister to tow and moor ships in August 2018 for six > That company has a similar corporate months, with the option to renew just structure to Wilfrid’s primary vehicle for once. We have found no evidence of a embezzlement, Socotram. Its parent company, licence renewal or issuance. In response now based in France, has changed jurisdiction to questions from Global Witness, multiple times since incorporation in 2001, Copremar said that the Port Autonome of jumping from one European secrecy Pointe-Noire issued its towing licence, jurisdiction to another as money laundering but provided no evidence of this.
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