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| Gabon - President Ali Bongo |
About
Ali Bongo Ondimba was elected president of Gabon in 2009 and re-elected in 2016 amid violence and allegations of fraud. He previously was foreign minister and defense minister. His father, Omar Bongo, an authoritarian president, ruled the central African country for more than 40 years. Corruption is endemic in Gabon, according to Transparency International.
Details in the Pandora Papers
Bongo and two political associates controlled a shell company in the British Virgin Islands, according to the Pandora Papers documents, an arrangement that hasn’t been reported before. Bongo was the major shareholder in Gazeebo Investments Ltd., according to a February 2008 email from a Miami attorney who instructed lawyers at Trident Trust to incorporate the company. The email described Bongo, then Gabon’s minister of defense, as a “civil servant.” The Pandora Papers documents do not state the purpose of the company. The company’s other shareholders were Jean-Pierre Oyiba, head of Bongo’s presidential cabinet until he resigned in 2009 following a corruption scandal, and Claude Sezalory, a French-born Gabonese politician who was married to Sylvia Bongo Ondimba before she married Ali Bongo in 1989. Oyiba was not charged and denied wrongdoing. Ali Bongo was also the director of another BVI shell company, Cresthill Worldwide Ltd. Its purpose isn’t known, either. The two shell companies are no longer active.
President Bongo’s press office did not respond to ICIJ’s repeated requests for comment. Oyiba and Sezalory, contacted through the Miami attorney who helped them set up shell companies, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Secrecy Broker
At the heart of the Pandora Papers are 14 offshore firms that help clients establish companies in secrecy jurisdictions. This profile draws on leaked data from these providers:
1. Trident Trust
Trident Trust is one of the world’s largest offshore providers. It is linked to nearly 100 politicians and public officials identified in the Pandora Papers. Here are some of the top political figures involved.
2. Commence BVI
Founded in the British Virgin Islands, Commence Overseas Ltd. provided services to 4 politicians and public officials identified in the Pandora Papers.
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