Criminal complaint filed against UBS over funds of Belgian businessman with ties to Kabila

Three organisations have filed a criminal complaint to federal prosecutors in Switzerland, alleging possible money laundering and a failure to exercise due diligence at UBS in relation to funds received by Belgian businessman Philippe de Moerloose. De Moerloose is an associate of former Congolese president Joseph Kabila who "received $19 million of dubious origin in his UBS accounts in Zurich and Geneva", according to a press release on the website of Swiss NGO Public Eye on Friday.

The complaint was filed by Public Eye, the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF) and the pan-African anticorruption association UNIS. They want the Swiss prosecutors to investigate possible money laundering activities and a possible failure to exercise due diligence regarding financial transactions on the part of UBS. 

According to the organisations, Philippe de Moerloose worked closely with former Congolese President Joseph Kabila. In September 2012, he allegedly received seven million dollars from a farm controlled by the Kabila clan through a UBS account in Zurich in the name of an offshore company. These were "bribes from Chinese companies to Congolese leaders as part of a mining contract", according to the organisations.

"In 2013, the Belgian received another $12 million from UBS Geneva for the sale of a building in Kinshasa, acquired by a shell company of Kabila’s family," the organisations write.

The Belgian businessman is already the subject of a judicial investigation into the bribery of Congolese officials. The article series 'Congo hold-up', published by Belgian newspapers De Standaard and Le Soir and media partners of European Investigative Collaborations (EIC), led to house searches and a judicial investigation by the Belgian federal public prosecutor's office.

(KOR)

© FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP