Omar Bongo, king of bling...

Article on Omar Bongo in the Sunday Times yesterday here and pasted below. I can only echo the comments of the guy who sent the link:

"The article below appeared in today's UK Sunday Times - a profile of
President Bongo of Gabon. Can we expect someone like him to disapprove in
the AU of President Mugabe's activities in Zimbabwe? Why do Africans
tolerate leaders like Bongo, who has ruled for 40 years? Is it only some top
political leaders who display these characteristics, or do we see it on a
lesser scale in different spheres of activity as we go down the hierarchy?"

Bongo, the des res despot
President of Gabon uses treasury cash to fund luxury lifestyle

A mansion worth £15m in one of Paris’s most elegant districts has become the
latest of 33 luxury properties bought in France by President Omar Bongo
Ondimba of Gabon, the world’s longest-serving leader, and his family, it was
alleged last week.

According to files seen by The Sunday Times, a French judicial investigation
has discovered that Bongo, 72, and his relatives also bought a fleet of
limousines, including a £308,823 Maybach for his wife, Edith, 44. Payment
for some of the cars was taken directly from the treasury of Gabon, a
country rich in oil.

Bongo, who started his career as a postal worker, has ruled for 40 years and
has become one of wealthiest leaders in the world while 30% of his people
eke out a living on less than 50p a day.

The Paris mansion is in the Rue de la Baume, near the Elysée Palace, the
home of President Nicolas Sarkozy, who greeted Bongo there last week. The
21,528 sq ft home was bought in June last year by a property company based
in Luxembourg. The firm’s partners are two of Bongo’s children, Omar, 13,
and Yacine, 16, his wife Edith and one of her nephews. Bongo is reported to
have more than 30 children.

The residence is the most expensive in his portfolio, which includes nine
other properties in Paris, four of which are on the exclusive Avenue Foch,
near the Arc de Triomphe. He also rents a nine-room apartment in the same
street.

Bongo has a further seven properties in Nice, including four villas, one of
which has a swimming pool. Edith has two flats near the Eiffel Tower and
another property in Nice.

Investigators identified the properties through tax records. Checks at Bongo
’s houses in turn allowed them to find details of his fleet of cars. Edith
used a cheque, drawn on an account in the name of “Paierie du Gabon en
France” (part of the Gabon treasury), to buy the Maybach, painted Cote d’
Azur blue, in February 2004.

Bongo’s daughter Pascaline, 52, used a cheque from the same account for a
part-payment of £29,497 towards a £60,000 Mercedes two years later. Bongo
bought himself a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti F1 in October 2004 for £153,000,
while his son Ali acquired a Ferrari 456 M GT in June 2001 for £156,000.

Bongo’s fortune has repeatedly come under the spotlight. According to a 1997
US Senate report, his family spends £55m a year.

In a separate French investigation into corruption at the former oil giant
Elf Aquitaine, an executive testified that it paid £40m a year to Bongo via
Swiss bank accounts in exchange for permission to exploit his country’s
reserves. Bongo has denied this.

The latest inquiry, by the French antifraud agency OCRGDF, followed a
lawsuit that accused Bongo and two other African leaders of plundering
public funds to finance their purchases.

“Whatever the merits and qualifications of these leaders, no one can
seriously believe that these assets were paid for out of their salaries,”
alleges the lawsuit brought by the Sherpa association of jurists, which
promotes corporate social responsibility.

Jean Merckaert, of the Catholic Committee Against Hunger and For Development
in Paris, who first drew up an inventory of Bongo’s properties last year,
said: “France sees itself as a world leader in fighting corruption and yet
now it is not only refusing to lift a finger against Bongo and other
dictators, but is greeting their money with open arms.”

- Born Albert-Bernard Bongo in 1935, he changed his name to El Hadj Omar
Bongo when he converted to Islam in 1973.
- He has been in power since 1967 and became the world’s longest-serving
ruler after Fidel Castro stepped down as Cuba’s president in February.
- He is married to Edith, the daughter of the Congolese president, Denis
Sassou-Nguesso.
- He has more than 30 children - though not all of them by his wife.
- His home town, formerly Lewai, has been renamed Bongoville.