http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2015/02/13/swissleaks-qui-sont-les-millionnaires-africains-d-hsbc_4576000_3212.html
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Eritrea
HSBC has customers to Asmara. Closed and opaque country, led with an iron fist by Isaias Afewerki figure of the war of independence became President, Eritrea has nevertheless funny millionaires. In 1981, Hassan Abdalla Bashir, then aged 24, opened an account with HSBC in Geneva as a "banker". Eritrea was then at war. Six years later, it's Ghebreselassi Kidane Habte, 37, who did the same. According to the documents which had access The World Africa , the latter, which is presented at HSBC as a "driver car ", residing in Asmara in 2007 has more than $ 106 million while Hassan Abdalla Bashir, the" banker " , has more than 209 million. No information is available about these two characters...
INVESTIGATION
SwissLeaks: who are the African millionaires HSBC?
Joan Tilouine
WORLD On 02/13/2015 at 12:23 • Updated 14/02/2015 at 13h11
Pointe-Noire, the economic capital of Congo turned to the ocean, it is the sea that French expatriates, or Congolese adoption, love to find . As at Villa Madiba, the fanciest hotel in town, clean design, not far from the second home of President Denis Sassou Nguesso. The owner, Henry Bénatouïl, also heads the Congolese Society of transport . The French 64, influential, is close to President. Formerly, he received from time to time Roger Basso, asset manager at HSBC dedicated to the African francophone, come to Geneva to provide advice to the client of which had 1.9 million dollars in an account he finished by fencing in 2005, according to documents viewed by The World Africa .
Roger Basso, born in 1946, in Geneva after a career with Credit Lyonnais in the south of France and Pointe-Noire, the Caribbean and Dakar, took advantage of his stay in Congo to recruit new customers, as Patrick Faudemay, French entrepreneur born in Libreville there 54 years and founder, among others, the Lions Club Pointe-Noire Eucalyptus. In 2001, he sold to Roger Basso sirens and up to $ 3 million in the cool Swiss coffers. Very comfortable in this environment, Mr. HSBC Africa went then solicit another French millionaire city, director of a import-export company also operates in Brazzaville.
Customers rather pleasant, almost friends. Roger Basso used to violate the rules of the bank to sign up on account opening forms, "to avoid to [my] customers moving in Switzerland " , as he explained to investigators Police French court in May 2013, according to documents that The World Africa could see . "In Africa, everyone knows each other, and so I quickly know if this or that was a thug or a wealthy industrialist. The compliance department [compliance] then made the checks and suspicious files were systematically excluded " .
Yet the "audits" have not lingered on the case of the Congolese Aziza Kulsum Gulamali banal "business woman" , according to HSBC. His account active until 2006, posted $ 3 million. Is that the UN reports, yet public, had to escape to compliance . They describe how the "Queen of coltan" raided on the exploitation and export of the ore coveted in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the early 2000s and accuse him of having financed the civil war in Burundi in the 1990s So it was condemned by the Swiss and Belgian justices in 2003. This did not awake either HSBC's suspicions, which also hosted her husband, the Congolese Hamisi Singoma with an account credited with $ 1.6 million in 2007.
Democratic Republic of Congo
In DRC, the vast majority of millionaires customers of HSBC Private Bank are industrial of Belgian origin, entrepreneurs from the Jewish and Lebanese communities. As Hassan rich importer of pharmaceutical and industrial products, also at work in Angola , including the account opened in 2006 has 3 million. A senior Congolese in Kinshasa planning plant has he, much more: $ 60 million. What remains modest compared brewed fortunes by a cartel of Israeli businessmen where we find Nir Livnat, diamond set in Johannesburg, Daniel Steinmetz, whose brother Benny is at the heart of the matter Simandou Guinea , or Mozes Victor Konig, whose account is credited with more than 120 million divided among several company s.
The name of a businessman appears on the accounts of each of them: Dan Gertler. Near the Congolese President Joseph Kabila, Gertler is illustrated in the DRC by the opacity of its business in the mining sector, particularly in Katanga, but also in the oil with his company Oil of DR Congo. It has already been identified cvomme a problem: the IMF suspended its loan program in Kinshasa following the takeover by the Israeli suspect a project that copper has not been able to justify the Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo. HSBC, she does not care. Roger Basso trusted his compliance , which trusts the client.
The accounts that show the name of Mr. Gertler have attracted no attention. They appear in the SwissLeaks documents related to several offshore companies including Sunland International Marketing Ltd or Concordia Marketing Group. Asked the lawyer's office in London Mr Gertler, Mishcon de Reya, replied: "our client categorically denies any involvement in the diamond trade weapons against Congo in the late 1990s" . Adding: "Our customer is not aware that the companies you mention have these bank accounts " . Prior to specify : "the details private business [Mr. Gertler] have no legitimate public interest. Moreover, our client has always paid his taxes in each of the relevant jurisdictions " .
South Africa
Among the 1787 South African HSBC customers (2221 accounts), we find again the elite of the industry precious stones, with 58 clients who are as diamond. Many of them are millionaires. Another area where South Africa dominates the continent armaments.
The businessman and consultant Fana Hlongwane knows something. Former commander of the military wing of the ANC, became advisor Special Minister of Defence , Joe Modise, in 1995, it was agreed in December by the South African authorities as part of a survey conducted by the Committee Seriti on a questionable contract signed in 1999 between Pretoria and British Aerospace. It is among others accused of "fraud and corruption" in this case, which concerned the current president Jacob Zuma. His account opened in May 2001 is associated with several front companies domiciled in the British Virgin Islands. In all, his name is linked to over twenty accounts at HSBC, credited with $ 12.7 million.
It also crosses importers of manufactured goods, business leaders, traders and engineers, doctors off and mysterious "housewives" rich in millions, probably nominees. One of the members of the economic elite, Darryl Martin Moritz, chairs the South African airline Comair. His account was credited with $ 27 million in 1997, the year of its completion. However, 164 million dollars were always late 2007 on behalf of the former head of a pension fund, born in 1927. The South African assets at HSBC totaled almost two billion.
Nigeria
The richest man in Africa today appears briefly in the HSBC files. Aliko Dangote, born in 1957 in Kano, has held an account in HSBC Geneva between July 2003 and August 2004, attached to an address domiciled in the British Virgin Islands for the company Development Projects Corporation. No amount is indicated for the now credited with a fortune of $ 21.6 billion, 23 th World fortune. Besides oil auditors carrying over $ 35 million and Indian businessmen and Lebanese established in Lagos, there is a dinosaur of the Nigerian industry. This year, Chief Bode Akindele will celebrate its 82 years and extraordinary entrepreneurial success. This businessman from the Yoruba ethnic group and notable Ibadan, north of Lagos, is present in the telecommunications sector, the real estate in Nigeria and London, finance, food, the shipping, fishing, importation and distribution, production of matches, beer, biscuits ... A jack-of-all who hid $ 24 million in Switzerland, a fraction of his wealth colossal estimated at $ 1.2 billion, according Ventures Africa.
Cameroon
The unique Cameroonian millionaire HSBC is one of those strange "housewives". Lydia is the wife of a senior power company AES Sonel, Cameroon became Eneo. While Cameroon still face frequent power cuts, Lydie has three million deposited in his account opened in July 2002.
In Gabon , as in Equatorial Guinea , the few millionaires at HSBC are Lebanese businessmen who officiate in the importation of goods. While in Kenya , all are of Indian or Pakistani origin, and opened their account between 2002 and 2006. The World Africa will come back with specific articles on these communities.
Eritrea
HSBC has customers to Asmara. Closed and opaque country, led with an iron fist by Isaias Afewerki figure of the war of independence became President, Eritrea has nevertheless funny millionaires. In 1981, Hassan Abdalla Bashir, then aged 24, opened an account with HSBC in Geneva as a "banker". Eritrea was then at war. Six years later, it's Ghebreselassi Kidane Habte, 37, who did the same. According to the documents which had access The World Africa , the latter, which is presented at HSBC as a "driver car ", residing in Asmara in 2007 has more than $ 106 million while Hassan Abdalla Bashir, the" banker " , has more than 209 million. No information is available about these two characters in a country Amnesty International calls a "huge central prison, where prisoners citizens of their own country are regularly rounded up by the army , forced to work for a state phagocytosed by the party " .
If the Sudan has very few millionaires at HSBC, linked to large national and foreign companies, it is instead the desert in the file Chad , the Niger or the Mauritanian . No one physical outcome of these countries has credited over one million accounts with HSBC in 2007.
Mali
Which is not the case in Mali. In Bamako, the entire political-economic elite knows "Tony". The power and wealth of Antoine Azar, 72, arouse envy. But this man of Lebanese affairs is ever-present, regardless of the power. Malians who have the means are shopping in supermarkets, dancing in the disco, to distract his bowling and other institutions of the Hippodrome district where he rules the business. In his ultra-secure storage, elephant tusks and a disproportionate aquarium adorn the spacious office of the former Lebanese Phalangist (Christian) became a sponsor of the import of manufactured goods in Mali. Which did not fail to irritate the IMF officials who thought among others "Tony" when they have conditioned the return of aid to Mali , suspended in June 2014, the payment of taxes of some businessmen. At HSBC, "Tony" is far from the richest 99 Malians account holders with $ 35.3 million in 2007. The World Africa will elaborate further on his case.
Senegal and Ivory Coast
In Senegal , there are rare and discreet entrepreneurs who did not wish to answer our questions. But the majority of millionaires among the 309 account holders are Lebanese businessmen long-established in the land of Teranga (hospitality in Wolof). It's the same in Ivory Coast where the Lebanese community monopolizes the HSBC client file. They are mechanics, in the supply of building materials, construction, or import, to the head of a chain of bakeries and food shops, their accounts are sometimes credited with more than 35 million. They form the club of millionaires Ivorian HSBC. In the files consulted by The World Africa also included a grand-son of Felix Houphouet-Boigny and Patrick Bedie, son of former President Henri Konan Bedie and exporter of chocolate and cocoa. The latter was the holder of an account with HSBC from 1992 to 2000. A period corresponding to the presidency of his father, ousted in a coup on December 24, 1999. Patrick Bedie did not respond to our questions, like most millionaires SSA of HSBC. Swiss banking secrecy - or what remains of it - has many followers in the continent.
(Software translation from French langu.)
Received on Sat Feb 14 2015 - 08:10:12 EST