The Pandora Papers reveal how the super-rich around the world hide their wealth behind shell companies in offshore tax havens. They avoid tax and deny their citizens their right to transparency and public scrutiny of their millions.
Denis Sassou-Nguesso, President of the Republic of Congo is one of the politicians under the spotlight. Analysis of the million papers leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reveal for the first time that Sassou owned a company, Inter African Investment Ltd., registered in the British Virgin Islands in 1998, during his second term as president. This company in turns owned another, Ecoplan Finance Ltd., which in turn owned Escom Congo.
Escom Congo is interesting because of its link with Hélder Bataglia, a Portuguese Angolan businessman who founded the Escom Group, an investment company with infrastructure projects in Congo, as well as Angola and Mozambique. Hélder Bataglia has a reputation for bringing in Chinese investment. Escom (UK) was the subject of a decade-long corruption investigation in which the payment of bribes was established in a German court. Hélder Bataglia’s name cropped up again with the release of the Panama Papers, which revealed him as a beneficial owner of secret offshore companies.
Congo’s main asset, its oil, is held by the state oil company, Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo or SNPC. In 1997, the year of the violent civil war that returned Sassou to power, the regime reportedly created the SNPC Asia Holding Limited and the SNPC Asia Trading, owned by Escom (5%), SNPC (10%) and 85% by the Chinese 88 Queensway group. The Collectif Sassoufit calls this, “the price of Denis Sassou Nguesso’s bloody return to power”: it would mean that 85% of oil trades with Asia were owned by a company linked to the Chinese communist party and Chinese mafia, while 5% went to Sassou through his ownership of Escom. In a further twist, Escom Group’s bank in Congo was reportedly the Banque Espirito Santo Congo, which was 1.5% owned by Hélder Bataglia.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists links Escom to the control of diamond mines in Congo. However, there is little to no information about diamond mines in the Republic of Congo. Congo has been accused of smuggling blood diamonds across the border from DRC and Congo was expelled from the Kimberley process in 2004 (Global Witness). Congo’s exports of diamonds increase when DRC tightens its controls on the export its diamonds, while exports from DRC increased when Congo was expelled from the Kimberley process. Congo was readmitted to the Kimberley process in 2007 and produced US$2 million of diamonds in 2018. In 2019 Congo exported diamonds worth US$3 million (The Observatory of Economic Complexity). The role of the Escom group, and its network of offshore holdings, in Congo’s diamonds is yet to be revealed.
In the days after the Pandora Papers were revealed, nine countries said they would investigate the tax avoidance schemes and potential money laundering implicating their rulers. It is unlikely any such investigation will be held in Congo. While Congolese people struggle for daily survival, Sassou and his allies and family members have amassed a wealth estimated at US$ 32.5 million. A recent report tracking the assets of Congo’s kleptocrats analyzed publicly available information to identify properties owned by members of the Sassou family (Sassoufit and C4ADS). These include properties worth millions owned by Sassou’s son Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso and by his step-daughter, Blandine Malila Lumande, in Dubai, and properties in Miami owned by Sassou’s second wife Nathalie Boumba Pembe, as well as many more belonging to Sassou’s entourage.
Public property records give an insight into the huge riches amassed by the ruling elite in Congo, and the Pandora papers imply far more hidden wealth, disguised in shell companies registered in the British Virgin Islands. Sassou was re-elected president in May 2021, for a fourth term in office, after 36 years in power. There is little chance of change for some time to come.
