PANDORA PAPERS: DENIS SASSOU NGUESSO, ESCOM, BESCO AND THE EXPLOSION OF MARCH 4, 2012 IN BRAZZAVILLE

There are no surprises; the name of Denis Sassou Nguesso could not be missing from the #PandoraPapers list. It appears with a jackpot of 150 million € via the company Escom details the newspaper Le Monde without going further for the moment. Escom is infamous in Congo for having been at the origin of the explosion of March 4, 2012, due to improper storage of explosives. 

As early as 1997, in a complex tangle of companies, in association with Helder Bataglia for Escom and the 88 Queensway group (a mixture of Chinese mafia and the Chinese Communist Party’s secret services), the regime created the SNPC Asia Holding Limited and the SNPC Asia Trading. Escom then owns 5%, SNPC 10%, and the Queensway group represented by Dayuan International Development Limited 85%. The price of Denis Sassou Nguesso’s bloody return to power is revealed, 85% for China, 5% for the Nguesso and 10% to be shared between oligarchs.

Even more shocking, BESCO (counterpartBanque Espirito Santo Congo), the banking of the ESCOM Group in Congo, represents the quasi-private bank of the Congolese Labor Party. The Bank’s capital is distributed as follows: Banco Espirito Santo Angola (47%); Congolese state (50%); Bataglia Helder (1.5%); Santos Llidio (1.5%). This capital reveals the other spoils of war, that of the Angola of José Eduardo Dos Santos, who had not hesitated to invade the Congo to help Denis Sassou Nguesso get back to business. The price of this invasion is therefore set at 47% of the turnover of the PCT personal bank!

This bank has as administrator Lydie Oboa, former head of audit division of SNPC, general manager of the public portfolio, administrator of the national electricity company, and wife of the sadly famous Serge Oboa of the DGSP, the personal tribal guard of the President. The CEO of BESCO is Chantal Ovaga, cousin of Minister Gilbert Ondongo and niece of Pierre Moussa, former Minister of Planning and current Secretary-General of the PCT. Chantal Ovaga is in addition the wife of Cyriaque Ovaga, the technical director of the Ministry of Planning…

Without dwelling on the conflicts of interest between the qualities of directors of public companies and the « pinkwashing » at BESCO, it clearly outlines the central role of this criminal bank in the siphoning of the Congo.