Dear Supporter,

A bank controlled by the president’s family. Over a hundred million embezzled from public funds. Webs of shell companies. Money laundering. Cash stashed in property around Washington, DC. Millions of confidential bank records.

The Congo Hold-Up leak, obtained by The Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF) and Mediapart and shared with The Sentry by PPLAAF and the European Investigative Collaborations network, is the largest leak from the African continent to date, composed of over 3.5 million documents.

Today, as part of this investigative consortium, The Sentry released "Embezzled Empire." Our report reveals that the brother of Joseph Kabila, then-president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), bought millions of dollars’ worth of homes in the United States and South Africa, it appears at least in part using funds diverted from the Congolese government. At least $85 million in public funds wound up in the bank accounts of an obscure shell company. The shell company was controlled by members of Kabila's family, and the bank, BGFIBank DRC, was run by his brother, Francis Selemani Mtwale. During the same period, Selemani and his wife spent $6.6 million on 17 properties in the suburbs of Washington, DC, and Johannesburg, South Africa.

To see how the Kabila family misappropriated millions in public funds, transferred millions abroad, and purchased millions in foreign real estate, read the report. For more information on the broader collaborative effort, and to read other hard-hitting investigations by The Sentry’s partners in this collaboration, visit European Investigative Collaborations and the Congo Hold-Up homepage.

These investigations offer a glimpse into a kleptocratic system that has looted billions from one of the world’s poorest countries—and provide governments, law enforcement agencies, and financial institutions with new evidence needed to take decisive action.

Sincerely,

John Prendergast
Co-Founder of The Sentry