French financial prosecutors have requested that BNP Paribas and several relatives of Gabon’s late president Omar Bongo be tried in Paris over allegations that fraudulently acquired Gabonese assets were laundered through property purchases in France.
According to a judicial source cited by French news agency AFP on Monday, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office has asked for 23 defendants to be sent to the Paris Criminal Court.
They include five legal entities — BNP Paribas and four property companies — as well as 18 individuals. Among them are some of Omar Bongo’s children and Antoinette Sassou Nguesso, the wife of the current president of Congo, the source said.
A source close to the case said former Miss France and actress Sonia Rolland is also among those prosecutors want to stand trial.
Investigators have seized 52 properties allegedly acquired fraudulently as part of the case, according to the judicial source.
The judicial investigation was opened in late 2010 following a complaint by Transparency International.
Prosecutors suspect the properties were bought with money linked to 'Françafrique,' the system of corruption, political patronage and commercial influence that long shaped ties between Paris and some of its former African colonies.
That system was at the centre of the Elf affair, which involved secret commissions paid by the French oil company Elf — now part of TotalEnergies — for the benefit of Omar Bongo, who died in 2009, and his entourage.
According to evidence from the investigation seen by AFP, French judges believe Omar Bongo handed several tens of millions of euros in cash to a Gabonese interior design company, Atelier 74, to finance property purchases.
The money was then allegedly transferred through the company’s French bank account.
BNP Paribas, which has been under formal investigation since May 2021, is accused of aggravated money laundering, including the laundering of proceeds from corruption and the embezzlement of public funds, the judicial source said.
Prosecutors allege that between 1996 and 2008 the bank enabled the Bongo family and their associates, through Atelier 74, to channel at least €35 million of illicit funds into property transactions, according to the prosecutor’s submission seen by AFP.
During questioning, BNP Paribas acknowledged failings and shortcomings but denied any fraudulent intent.
