Investigators Hunt Assets Linked to African Country's President, Family
U.S. authorities are investigating the flow of funds from Gabon to the
U.S. to determine whether any assets are traceable to public corruption
in the central African country, according to a law-enforcement document
and people familiar with the matter.
As part of a broader effort to address
possible foreign graft, Homeland Security agents and Justice Department
prosecutors have searched for assets in the U.S. linked to Gabonese
President Ali Bongo
and his family, as well as his chief of staff,
Maixent Accrombessi,
these people said. Prosecutors could seek to seize assets they
believe are ill-gotten.
The case puts Gabon in the cross hairs of U.S. policy in Africa. President Barack Obama
is looking to increase trade and
military ties with stable African partners like Gabon, an economy
growing at about 7% this year. But the Justice Department is taking a
harder tack against corruption on the continent.
Two U.S. Senate probes into the movement of
foreign assets into the country since 1999 concluded that Mr. Bongo's
late father, Omar, who ruled the country for 41 years, used his position
to amass a personal fortune during Gabon's oil boom.
The current U.S. probe came to light last year
after customs officials at Los Angeles International Airport said they
found more than $150,000 in the luggage of a onetime hairdresser and
aide to Mr. Bongo. Agents seized the money from the man,
Derek Ashby,
because he hadn't disclosed the full amount on currency forms, according
to documents filed in federal court in California in July.
In September, federal agents raided the
Pennsylvania home of lobbyist Joseph
Szlavik, weeks after he allegedly
transported cash from Gabon to the U.S., said people familiar with the
matter. Prosecutors are investigating whether Messrs. Szlavik and Ashby
violated any criminal laws, according to the law-enforcement document.
Bringing bulk cash into the U.S. is legal, as
long as the person carrying it declares the proper amount and states
whether they are carrying it on someone else's behalf. Money-laundering
laws prohibit any person from knowingly engaging in a financial
transaction that involves the proceeds of corruption.
Mr. Ashby told agents he hadn't bothered to
count all of the cash he was carrying because he was transporting it
from Gabon to Mr. Bongo's estranged wife in Los Angeles,
Inge Collins,
according to court documents.
"He was just unaware of the total amount he
was provided," said Michael R. Kilts, a lawyer for Mr. Ashby. Mr.
Szlavik declined to comment through his lawyer,
Aitan Goelman. Neither man
has been charged with a crime.
Since 2000, Ms. Collins has received millions
of dollars in cash payments and wire transfers from Mr. Bongo and
through Messrs. Ashby and Szlavik, said a person familiar with the
matter.
Mr. Bongo's office said this month that it was aware of the probe of his
associates but received word from the U.S. State Department this month
that neither the president nor his government is under investigation by
U.S. authorities. It added that the policies of the elder Bongo's
presidency outlined in the prior Senate investigations "are not the
policies of the current presidency" or the rest of the government. A
State Department spokesman declined to comment, as did a spokesman for
the Justice Department.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
announced a new asset-forfeiture
program in 2010 aimed at "combating large-scale foreign official
corruption."
The drive has had mixed success. Such cases
are politically fraught and difficult to make, said legal experts. In
the Gabon probe, the U.S. is asking about the assets of public officials
with whom the State Department says it has "excellent relations."
From 2011 to 2012, Gabon held a United Nations
Security Council seat and helped push through two of Mr. Obama's most
difficult U.N. votes: sanctions against Iran's nuclear program and
support for the removal of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
In 2011, Mr. Bongo asked the U.S. Treasury for
help training Gabonese auditors to investigate corruption there, said
Eric Benjaminson,
then U.S. ambassador.
That same year, Mr. Bongo had 50-minute a
conversation with Mr. Obama in the White House in which the U.S. leader
expressed his desire for the Gabonese to increase anticorruption
efforts, said Mr. Benjaminson, who was in the room. Mr. Bongo agreed,
but said he faced challenges in uprooting a long tradition of corruption
in the country, said Mr. Benjaminson.
A White House spokesman declined to comment.
Ms.
Collins married Mr. Bongo in 1994 but separated from him a decade
later. Mr. Ashby, a beautician by trade, styled her hair for the wedding
and was later asked to join Mr. Bongo's coterie of aides, said a person
familiar with the matter.
Ms. Collins, who has also been contacted as
part of the investigation, said she was cooperating with authorities and
denied any wrongdoing.
Mr. Szlavik's ties
to Gabon date back to at least the 1990s, when he began lobbying for Mr.
Bongo's father, according to lobbying disclosures filed with the
Justice Department.
Write to Joe Palazzolo at joe.palazzolo@wsj.com, Christopher M. Matthews at christopher.matthews@wsj.com and Drew Hinshaw at drew.hinshaw@wsj.com
Source: Wall Street Journal