This week, we’re following an ongoing political scandal in the Democratic Republic of Congo that began with the release of a damning report from our friends over at the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
An anonymous source sent investigative journalists covertly recorded videos that show President Félix Tshisekedi’s top political advisor Vidiye Tshimanga negotiating a secret mining deal with purported Hong Kong investors. Tshimanga admitted that it was him in the recordings but has claimed innocence. In interviews, he insisted that he knew he was being set up and played along to see how far the ‘investors’ would go.
Despite these assertions, Tshimanga resigned soon after the story came out. And two days ago, the prosecutor’s office reportedly questioned the former presidential advisor for seven hours and then placed him under arrest.
We don’t know what the charges are, but they may have something to do with an alleged partnership with a Canadian mining company that Tshimanga confessed grants him a 20 per cent stake in the project – on tape. While they could not verify the links or secret payments, journalists found that both the Congolese and the Canadian companies Tshimanga mentioned in the recordings had secured mining licenses right next to each other shortly after President Tshisekedi assumed office in 2019.
Supporters of Félix Tshisekedi attending an election rally in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo in December 2018. Photo: Baz Ratner / REUTERS
One aspect of Tshimanga’s confession that caught our attention was how he said he would go about disguising his stake in the possible future deal. He suggested that ‘investors’ would be doing business with a Congolese company held through Mauritius-based trusts that he actually owns and controls. To evade scrutiny, he’s kept all of this off paper.
In recent years, much of our – and the world’s – attention has been focused on anonymously owned companies, with demonstrable progress. While they haven’t yet been watched so closely trusts are another highly secretive and complex vehicle that criminals and the corrupt favour to cover their tracks. (We’re looking at you, Andrej Babiš.)
So what can be done about this? Governments, without any exception, should centrally collect information on the owners of trusts that are incorporated within their jurisdictions. And public officials need to verify the data.
Mauritius, for example, doesn’t have a register of trusts, making it an easy target for those who – like Tshimanga – prefer to stay anonymous when making suspicious deals. But this is more common than you might think: even countries with the most advanced anti-money laundering frameworks, including some of the G7 members, don’t have centralised registers of trusts.
Over the next few months, we’ll be pushing the Financial Action Task Force and its members to eliminate the gaps in the global standard on trust ownership. We submitted our extensive suggestions last month and will not let up the pressure – until all the loopholes through which shady actors hide their money and assets are closed.
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