Still Moving Money in Washington

By Scott Morgan

One has to admire how some of the more entrenched African leaders have the ability to not just to line their own pockets with illicit funds but also have the ability to circumvent US laws designed to prevent such acts from taking place. 

Recent reporting has documented how the Bongo Family of the Oil Rich West African nation of Gabon along with some key Political Allies have managed to purchase roughly $4.2 Million of Real Estate in the Washington, D.C. area. However this is not the first time this has happened. 

A Senate report released in 2010 documented how Yamilee Bongo-Astier at the time a college student received an estimated $1 Million in shrinkwrapped $100 Bills from her father then President Omar Bongo and was able to set up numerous accounts in American Banks.  She is reported to have told some Bank Employees that she was expecting to receive $2.2 Million to purchase a condo. She is also reported to have purchased luxury cars for Gabonese Officials 

Fast forwarding a decade later it appears close associates of the Bongo Famly have made two purchases of Property in the National Capital Region. One was purchased by Marie-Madeleine Mborantso a former romantic partner of the late Omar Bongo and the Current Head of the Constitutional Court of Gabon and who has ruled in 2009 and 2016 on behalf of the Bongo family during election challenges.

In 2013 Justice Mborantso along with her daughter purchased a town house in the exclusive Palisades neighborhood for $1.5 Million. In 2008 and 2015 Her son and daughter purchased condos in the city center for a cool $1 Million each. One of those properties was sold this past September. Her Honor also owns property in both France and South Africa as well. 

The Half-Sister Ounaida Bongo who was a Special Advisor for Communications purchased a Townhouse in the Wesley Hills neighborhood in 2001 for $642,000. She sold the property this past August for $1.1 Million 

Another member of the extended family Brice Clotaire Oligui-Nguema who is both a cousin and commander of the Presidential Guard has reportedly been able to purchase three properties in the Hyattsville and Silver Spring area for a combined total of $1 Million. How is this occurring? 

The U.S. Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcment Network updated its list of Metropolitan Areas required to identify individuals behind shell companies purchasing property with large amounts of cash.  Counties in California, Texas, New York and Florida have been ordered to record such purchases over a specific dollar amount. 

In a glaring oversight the District of Columbia and the adjoining counties in Maryland and Virginia are not on this list. Why this decision was not made by the Treasury Department should be a task for the next Administration to resolve. 

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