"French Billionaire Bollor\u00e9 Targeted in African Ports Corruption Case"

" French Billionaire Bollor\u00e9 Targeted in African Ports Corruption Case \r\n\r\nThe complaint was submitted to the National Financial Prosecutor's Office in Paris on Tuesday by \"Restitution pour l'Afrique\" (RAF), a collective of 11 NGOs from six African countries: Togo, Guinea, Cameroon, Ghana, C\u00f4te d'Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo.\r\n\r\nThe collective accuses the French conglomerate of systematically using corrupt practices to secure lucrative port concessions in at least five African nations before selling its African logistics operations for \u20ac5.7 billion in 2022 to Swiss-Italian shipping giant MSC.\r\n\r\n\"We are trying to condemn the Bollor\u00e9 method, the practices and the system that was put in place to win elections and have interests and dividends by managing ports in\u00a0 Africa ,\" said Jean-Jacques Lumumba, president of the RAF collective.\r\n\r\nThe complaint represents a new approach by targeting those allegedly paying bribes rather than the traditional focus on African officials receiving them.\r\n\r\n\"This complaint focuses on the corrupters, that is, those through whom money is injected into territories where it is later laundered,\" Paris-based lawyer Antoine Vey told the French news agency AFP.\r\n\r\n Documented allegations \r\n\r\nThe complaint details allegations across multiple countries. In\u00a0 Cameroon , a national anti-corruption commission report cited in the complaint claims Bollor\u00e9 Group withheld \u20ac60 million in fees and fines it should have paid to the state for its operations at Douala and Kribi ports.\r\n\r\nIn\u00a0 Ghana , Bollor\u00e9 allegedly convinced then-president\u00a0 John Dramani Mahama \u00a0in 2014 to award a port contract \"secretly and without tender\" despite 56 companies competing for the project.\r\n\r\nThe complaint claims this resulted in \"a net loss of $4.1 billion for Ghana\".\r\n\r\nThe 2003 no-bid award of the\u00a0 Abidjan \u00a0container terminal in\u00a0 C\u00f4te d'Ivoire \u00a0by then-president\u00a0 Laurent Gbagbo \u00a0drew criticism, with the World Bank's country director describing it as \"a contract that fundamentally violates principles of good governance\".\r\n\r\nThis is not the first time Bollor\u00e9's African operations have faced legal scrutiny.\r\n\r\nFrench authorities began investigating the company in 2013 over suspicions it used its political consulting subsidiary, Euro RSCG (now Havas), to help presidents\u00a0 Faure Gnassingb\u00e9 \u00a0and\u00a0 Alpha Cond\u00e9 \u00a0win their 2010 election campaigns in\u00a0 Togo \u00a0and\u00a0 Guinea \u00a0in exchange for port concessions.\r\n\r\nBollor\u00e9 settled part of the case in 2021 by paying a \u20ac12 million fine. However, in 2024, prosecutors requested a trial for\u00a0 Vincent Bollor\u00e9 \u00a0on charges of corruption and complicity in breach of trust.\r\n\r\n\"The group has already acknowledged that some of these activities took place. Is this the tip of the iceberg?\" Vey asked.\r\n\r\n Seeking restitution \r\n\r\nThe collective hopes the case will trigger the application of France's 2021 law, which allows for the reallocation of seized assets from corruption cases to fund development projects in affected countries.\r\n\r\n\"The goal is to target dirty money taken by the corrupter and return it to the African people who were harmed,\" Lumumba said.\r\n\r\n\"This money means fewer hospitals, fewer schools, fewer roads, fewer infrastructure projects. And it's a future that we're taking away from our young people.\"\r\n\r\nUntil its 2022 sale to Swiss-Italian shipping giant MSC, Bollor\u00e9 Africa Logistics employed over 20,000 people across more than 20 African countries and operated 16 port concessions along with warehouses and transportation hubs."

"French Billionaire Bollor\u00e9 Targeted in African Ports Corruption Case"

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