According to the report of the audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) charged for their certification, we find among the main "business current accounts" of this subsidiary of one of the largest Cameroonian banks at least three companies accused of being linked to Israeli billionaire and friend of former President Joseph Kabila, Dan Gertler, under US sanctions since December 2017 for suspicions of corruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): Ventora Development, Dorta Invest SA, Interactive Energy DRC SA. This does not prevent PwC from certifying these financial statements as conforming to "the accounting principles generally accepted in the DRC and the instructions and guidelines of the  Central Bank of Congo (BCC)". Yet, until then, deposits of Afriland First Bank CDs were modest and "mostly made up of savings accounts".

Last week, Global Witness and the Platform for whistleblower protection in Africa (PPLAAF) challenged Afriland First Bank  for allowing Mr. Gertler to circumvent U.S. Treasury sanctions that were supposed to prevent him from transacting in dollars since December 2017. The two NGOs say they have identified a network of nominees and shell companies linked to the Israeli businessman whose accounts were funded with tens of millions of dollars in cash, while the Central Bank caps this type of transaction at $10,000. Afriland First Bank  has since embarked on a media counter-offensive, accusing Global Witness and PPLAAF "of using falsified testimonies and evidence" to ultimately "not impute any crime to him." American sanctions, it is written on page 8 of the report, "said one of his foreign lawyers, the Frenchman Me Éric Moutet, who also happens to be that of the Israeli Dan Gertler in France. "There is intent to harm. They were offered to use independent experts to audit our evidence, as well as their own. »

The case is all the more serious for the reputation of Afriland First Bank that the shadow of this mining tycoon in the DRC hangs over several procedures opened in the United States, but also in Great Britain or for a few weeks in Switzerland. He is suspected of having served as an intermediary between his friend Joseph Kabila and large foreign groups such as the Swiss giant Glencore or the Kazakh Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation  and to have allowed them to get their hands on part of the country's wealth. According to the US Treasury, Dan Gertler even caused more than a billion dollars in lost revenue to the Congolese state between 2010 and 2012 and more since.

"Cameroonian boss of Afriland First Bank (editor's note, Cameroonian billionaire Paul Fokam) has written books on the development of entrepreneurship in Africa, he has always managed to attract foreign donors", explains a Congolese banker. The Dutch development agency (FMO) held nearly a fifth of its shares when it was founded. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the Global Bank granted it$15 million in 2015 over three years to finance loans to African small and medium-sized enterprises. But this is what most pan-African banks are doing that they want to set foot in countries like Congo. Paul Fokam was able to make himself indispensable by officially taking over some $ 40 million in June 2017 the healthy deposits and assets of one of the two bankrupt banks in the DRC: the First Internationale Bank (Fibank). This is before Dan Gertler and the US sanctions, but for this Congolese banker, it was already a gesture towards the former presidential family. "Fibank is almost the typical case. To penetrate the market more easily, the Gambian shareholder (editor's note, First Bank Limited) joined forces with a local partner, whose interests were represented by the chairman of the board of directors who was none other than Joseph Kabila's "uncle" Didier Kazadi Nyembwe (Editor's note, former security advisor to Laurent-Désiré Kabila and former general administrator of the National Intelligence Agency)," he said. "By taking over this bank, Fokam did a service to the BCC and the shareholders of Fibank, the Gambians no longer wanted to plug the holes of the mismanagement of the Congolese side, it was necessary to avoid the humiliation of a judicial procedure like the one that had happened to the BIAC, the other bank that was bankrupt at the time. For the lawyer of Afriland First Bank, Me Moutet, "there is nothing extraordinary in this commercial operation, the ring-fencing of the takeover of healthy assets by a bank that remains a trader, it is banal."

The transaction proved to be safe for Afriland First Bank, its reputation remained intact and the too many dubious assets that had plagued Fibank's accounts remained the responsibility of the BCC and its liquidator. & laquo; This is what is unhealthy with the Congolese banking sector," said Jean-Jacques Lumumba, a former Congolese banker and whistleblower. "The Central Bank had not required Fibank to reach the minimum capital required by law or to open its capital to other shareholders because of this proximity and no one knows if these toxic loans have been repaid. The shareholders who were responsible for the bankruptcy did not have to pay anything. At class="dj_article_plain>Afriland First Bank CD, 2018 is remembered as the year when the 13th month was finally paid. "I had been employed for years, we had always lacked liquidity, as well as capital, even if it was the subsidiary of a large Cameroonian group, "says a former employee. "That year, we were happy, but we knew that something was wrong, there were several serious alerts from February 2018, but the parent company never came to check. Dan Gertler and his wife had an account at the bank, despite the sanctions. Even the meteoric increase in deposits within its subsidiary should have raised questions. "In 2018, the situation had suddenly changed," confirms a former executive of this bank. "We knew that there were privileged clients whose physical account opening files never arrived at the archives, but remained in the management offices. It was obvious to us that there was a connection between all these Israelis. Even if the latter acknowledges that for "delicate" operations, it was difficult to trust "cashiers, accountants and auditors who are paid only a handful of dollars" to manage millions. "A boss may decide to keep certain transactions confidential for a while, but when it lasts, there is no designated account manager, internal control bodies are discarded and many deposits are made in cash, we all know what that means," he concludes. The excessive liquidity of the Congolese banking system

In several competitors of Afriland First Bank, bankers admit to having faced the same problems. "All corporate accounts in the DRC have relationships with bank bosses and have enough political contacts to get to get it. derogations, including from the Central Bank," says a board member of a rival bank. "In the mining sector, some companies work with artisanal diggers, it represents millions of dollars in cash and no way to have a bill," he explains.

These are the same types of reasons that have been given to explain why $35 million could have been withdrawn in cash from an account housed at Rawbank, one of the country's leading banks, as part of the execution of a public contract for the construction of prefabricated houses. he is part of President Felix Tshisekedi's emergency programme. For failing to justify the destination of this money, the Lebanese businessman, Samih Jammal, was sentenced at first instance by the Congolese justice to 20 years of hard labor, a sentence for which his lawyers appealed.

" Since the beginning of the trial in May, we still feel that all the banks are afraid, including mine. They start reporting all payments over $10,000, the legal limit," said the board member. Even the Congolese Association of Banks (ACB) has threatened to exclude some of its members, before preciting the Covid-19 pandemic not to make decisions. The Central Bank merely recalled its directive on the matter. "We have to recognize that this is how it happens here, regardless of the scandal in which a bank is involved, there are never sanctions," he finally admits. Weak central bank control

"It's no coincidence that all accounts linked to Dan Gertler ended up at Afriland First Bank ," says another industry professional. "All those who are sanctioned in the DRC create these companies mutants with nominees. The bosses of Afriland said to themselves: it allows to bring in cash and it is not illegal. With a cursory analysis, the risk is limited. Until the investigation of Global Witness and PPLAAF, this "calculation" seemed rather justified. According to several sources, the Central Bank of Congo carried out a monitoring mission in 2019 that lasted several months without any warning being issued. Since the publication of this report, it has sent a new monitoring mission, according to an internal source. Contacted by RFI to confirm the information and respond to the various allegations contained in this article, the BCC did not wish to react before the publication, but could respond this Friday at the press briefing after the meeting of the monetary policy committee. For the lawyer of Afriland First Bank, "chance does not make a criminal offense. All the big companies share the same banks, this is not proof of anything. However, the Central Bank of Congo is now widely questioned. "When you see a BCC control mission coming, you are always asked to take charge of the controllers and from there depends the content of the report," accuses the board member of one of the rival banks of Afriland First Bank . "They say they lack the means when each bank pays 0.6% of its deposits every year every year to pay the control fees and that represents tens of millions of dollars. The other banker remembers being confronted with the same types of practices. "We've all experienced this, the auditors hanging out in the offices looking for commissions. But there is not only a problem of corruption, there is also a problem of skills. This is why some within the Congolese Association of Banks have been advocating for years for the creation of our own risk centre, but the BCC has so far refused. »

Under the threat of the US regulatorGlobal Witness and PPLAAF explain that part of their investigation is based on documents and information transmitted by whistleblowers "who took very big risks". The former banker of the BGFI, Jean-Jacques Lumumba, was one of the precursors. To protest against the same management methods in his bank, he had slammed the door by taking part of his archives to denounce similar behavior. "The DRC has all the right texts to have a sound banking system, but what is lacking is surveillance," he said. "There is a serious problem of identification. A Mr. Dan Gertler can open an account with a passport and open another with a Congolese voter card. Commercial banks officially do not have a system for sharing risk information and prefer to ignore them. As for the Central Bank, it does not enforce its own directives. The Congolese authorities should strengthen its supervisory mission or think about outsourcing this mission, which is essential for the reliability of the Congolese banking system. For this former banker, as for several other actors and experts in the Congolese banking sector interviewed by RFI, the recent questioning of Afriland First Bank by NGOs, such as that of Rawbank by the Congolese justice system as part of the 100-day program, should lead to profound reforms in the management of risk and control policy. in the DRC, whether from private banks, the Central Bank, the Congolese State, or international donors. "These two cases could have a dramatic impact on the entire sector," adds one of his colleagues who is still active. "The Congolese Association of Banks made two missions in 2017 and 2019 to try to reassure the US Treasury about our ability to fight money laundering and corruption. For the past two years, we have been living under the constant threat of losing our dollar correspondent banks. »

Most major foreign banks refuse to work with the banking network installed in the DRC, due to its difficulties in proving the origin of its funds. This is one of the reasons for being banks like Afriland First Bank CD that serves as an intermediary with its parent company and Moroccan banks, such as BCME - through its Parisian subsidiary - and Attijariwafa, to allow customers in the DRC to continue to conduct operations in dollars or even euros, despite the bad reputation of the Congolese banking system. The management of risk policy is all the more acute given that the DRC has been living for more than thirty years in a dollarized economy where even dollar transactions between banks based in Congo transit through the United States. "All African banks account for barely 1% of dollar transactions for the US banking system," a Congolese banker said. "But this is one of his biggest risks. For a story like Gertler's, the U.S. regulator can make a U.S. bank pay billions of dollars in fines. »

For the lawyer of Afriland First Bank, Me Éric Moutet,"the accusations of the NGOs relate to specific elements related to a pseudo-violation of US sanctions, without any relation to the overall problem of good banking practices in the DRC. The people we suspect of having provided these falsified files have not issued any internal or institutional alerts, including the Central Bank, and that they have communicated their elements to NGOs and left Congolese territory. "Me Moutet recalls that a complaint was filed in France against the two NGOs and that a complaint will soon be filed in the DRC against the two alleged whistleblowers.

In a statement published this Thursday, July 9, 2020, the Congolese Association of Banks (ACB) reaffirmed "its commitment to maintain best banking practices among its members", it announces the "overhaul of its statutes to make them more binding while asking Congolese banks to conduct audits independent on their compliance systems" and says it is aware of "the inescapable nature of the US dollar in the Congolese financial system". It also recalls that the Central Bank "had already put in place a regulatory framework in line with the recommendations of the FATF (editor's note, the financial action task force of the OECD) and the Basel Committee" and issued new recommendations. in cash above the threshold of 10,000 dollars (...) is part of this dynamic that aims to promote sound practices in Congolese banks," the statement reads.