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Congo: Is President’s son paying for designer shopping sprees with country’s oil money?

Press Release – 26/06/2007

The son of the president of Republic of Congo appears to have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of money that may derive from sales of state oil on lavish designer shopping sprees in Paris, Marbella and Dubai, while Congo remains one of the poorest and most indebted countries in the world. While 70% of Congolese citizens earn less than a dollar a day, in August 2006 alone, Denis Christel Sassou-Nguesso, son of Congo’s President and head of Cotrade, the marketing branch of the state oil company SNPC, spent $35,000 on purchases from designers such as Louis Vuitton and Roberto Cavalli.

For more information on this case and the role of financial institutions in facilitating such activities, see chapter 5 of our 2009 report, Undue Diligence: How banks do business with corrupt regimes.

Download the full press release    

Download the full press release in French

Watch Al Jazeera documentary from September 2009, featuring Global Witness


See key documents below

Credit Card Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso

denis_christel_sassou_nguesso_credit_card_bill.pdf
payments_for_dcsns_credit_card_bill.pdf

Credit Card Blaise Elenga

elenga_blaise_credit_card_bill.pdf
payments_for_blaise_elengas_credit_card_bill.pdf

EIL

consulting_agreement...beach_and_elenga.pdf
elenga_investments_beneficial_ownership.pdf

Long Beach

long_beach_beneficial_ownership.pdf

Pan Africa

ollivier_affidavit.15may07.pdf
ollivier_affidavit.27may07.pdf
pan_africa_documents.pdf

Payments to EIL

aogc_eil2.pdf

 

Payments to Long Beach

aogc_long_beach.pdf
bill_of_lading_genmar_spartiate.17jan05.pdf
bill_of_lading_tanabe.21mar05.pdf
payments_to_long_beach_referencing_oil_cargoes.pdf

Read More

High Court Blocks Bid by Congo Leader's Son

 

Downloads

application/pdf Credit Card Blaise Elenga
application/pdf Credit Card Blaise Elenga
application/pdf Credit Card Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso
application/pdf Credit Card Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso
application/pdf EIL
application/pdf EIL
application/pdf Long Beach
application/pdf Pan Africa
application/pdf Pan Africa
application/pdf Pan Africa
application/pdf Payments to EIL
application/pdf Payments to Long Beach
application/pdf Payments to Long Beach
application/pdf Payments to Long Beach
application/pdf Payments to Long Beach
application/pdf Press release

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