Search
Search

CONGO HOLD-UP INVESTIGATION

When BankMed Suisse holds millions for a network under US sanctions

The Congo Hold-Up investigation, in which L’Orient-Le Jour took part, is Africa’s biggest financial leak to date. It is based on 3.5 million confidential documents from BGFIBank obtained by Mediapart and the NGO Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF), and coordinated by the media network European Investigative Collaborations (EIC).

It revealed, in particular, how a company belonging to an entity controlled by Kassem Tajeddine, who the United States considers to be one of Hezbollah’s top financial backers, received more than $11 million over four years into its account at a subsidiary of BankMed in Switzerland. The transfers were made by companies connected to Congo Futur, which is an industrial conglomerate also under US sanctions linked to the same family.

When BankMed Suisse holds millions for a network under US sanctions

At first glance, Global and Infinite Traders SAL (GAIT), an offshore company specializing in the import of offal and cheap cuts of beef from various origins to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is not particularly different from other Lebanese companies conducting businesses in Africa.
The “triangular trade,” between exporting countries, tax havens such as Lebanon where their headquarters are located and importing African countries, is a tool of choice by many businessmen from the land of the cedars.
While not illegal, this practice allows them to reduce the size of their tax liability and to engage in some practices, such as overcharging for their services — which is facilitated by the opacity of the import chain — as underlined in an audit report commissioned by the Congolese authorities from the international firm Menaa and...
At first glance, Global and Infinite Traders SAL (GAIT), an offshore company specializing in the import of offal and cheap cuts of beef from various origins to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is not particularly different from other Lebanese companies conducting businesses in Africa.
The “triangular trade,” between exporting countries, tax havens such as Lebanon where their headquarters are located and importing African countries, is a tool of choice by many businessmen from the land of the cedars.
While not illegal, this practice allows them to reduce the size of their tax liability and to engage in some practices, such as overcharging for their services — which is facilitated by the opacity of the import chain — as underlined in an audit report commissioned by the Congolese authorities from the international firm Menaa...