Lawsuits reveals the African high life

Telegraph:

Private jets, Bugatti cars, a shark-filled aquarium and enough bank accounts to paper the new luxury yacht - the extraordinary capacity of some African leaders and their families for apparent self-enrichment has been laid bare in a French lawsuit over allegedly stolen state money.

Following an inquiry last year by the French fraud body OCRGDF, an anti-corruption campaign group has accused a string of African politicians of plundering vast sums from the often struggling economies of their countries.

Inhabitants of Gabon or the Republic of Congo who have ever wondered what happens to their precious oil and mining revenues don't need to look any further than Paris and the French Riviera.

The richest parts of France are teeming with homes, cars, boats and other expensive baubles belonging - in practice, at least - to tropical Africa's political elite.

Gabon's President Omar Bongo and President Denis Sassous N'Guesso of the Republic of Congo, together with their associates and relations, are the most frequently cited in the suit, filed by Transparency International France, along with three Gabonese and Congolese citizens.

According to OCRGDF, as of last year, 15 members of Mr Bongo's family had 70 bank accounts in France.

The autocratic ruler of the tiny but oil-rich country himself allegedly owns 11 properties in Paris including a mansion in the chic 16th arrondissement worth 19 million euros. He is said to have five more homes in Nice and a Ferrari 612 to buzz in between them.

His son, Ali Bongo Ondimba, allegedly has three expensive cars - a Ferrari 456 GTA, a Mercedes S600 limousine and a Porsche 911 Carrera .

By contrast, some 16 members of Mr Sassous N'Guesso's family prefer to concentrate on their collection of bank accounts, between them owning apparently 111 in France alone.

They are also said to have a luxury residence in Paris's chic Avenue Foch, and others in Parisian suburbs such as Courbevoie and Velizy, as well as the Cote d'Azur.

But in their capacity to spoil themselves a bit, even the Bongos are outclassed by Teodoro Nguema, son of Equitorial Guineas's president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

Mr Nguema Jnr allegedly owns a Bugatti Veyron - dubbed the most powerful car in the world - which he bought for 1.1 million euros, as well as a Maserati MC 12 which cost him 709,000 euros.

He also allegedly has a $35 million mansion in Malibu, California, a $34 million private jet and a luxury yacht with an on-board shark aquarium.

...

There is much more. Rulers and their families treating the country treasury as their own appears to be a problem in many African countries. After all that too often the people get incompetent government too.

Sometimes it appears that the continent of Africa needs to be put into a receivership for the benefit of its citizens, but finding an honest man to run it appears to be too much to ask. We have seen how the UN mishandled a much smaller task with the oil for food scam.

We have seen how the people of places like Zimbabwe and Sudan are brutalized if they try to seek redress. Their neighbors say don't make the despot angry, are you will never have peace. Meanwhile many of their victims have the peace of the dead. It is disgusting that these thugs and kleptomaniacs can make colonialism seem like the good old days.