Anti-Corruption Takes Backseat to Interests in France’s Africa Ties

Anti-Corruption Takes Backseat to Interests in France’s Africa Ties
Then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, shakes hand with Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Ngeuma at the Elysee palace, Paris, Oct. 30, 2007 (AP photo by Jacques Brinon).

On July 30, Societe Generale, one of France’s biggest banks, was declared an “assisting witness”—somewhere between a suspect and a witness—in a money-laundering case against Teodorin Obiang, the son of Teodoro Obiang, Equatorial Guinea’s president who has been in power since 1979.

Days later, Maixent Accrombessi, a close aide to Gabon’s president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, was held for questioning in a corruption probe in Paris hours before he was set to return to Libreville. His detention was part of an ongoing investigation into the French military-uniform company Marck—which signed a $7.6 million contract with Gabon in 2005—on suspicions of corruption linked to numerous money transfers to bank accounts in Monaco.

Gabonese political elites responded to Accrombessi’s arrest Tuesday with indignation, calling it a “spectacle” and a direct attempt to “humiliate” their country. Hours later, Accrombessi was released.

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