by Edward McAllister and Emma Farge for Reuters
Funds from a dollar bank account in the name of the Jammeh Foundation for Peace, a charity founded by Gambia’s former president Yahya Jammeh, flowed to Jammeh himself, not to foundation projects, according to bank records and interviews with a former charity official and a former presidential staff member.
In 2012 and 2013, over $8 million was paid into the account at Gambia’s Trust Bank. Over half of the money was withdrawn in cash, Reuters has found.
Reuters was unable to determine whether donors intended to support the charity, or if donors, charity officials and the bank were aware that Jammeh was using the account to build his personal wealth. Reuters could not determine how the withdrawn money was spent.
Gambia’s new government has accused the former president of plundering many millions of dollars during his 22-year rule. On Monday, Finance Minister Amadou Sanneh said Jammeh had committed fraud on a massive scale including siphoning off tens of millions of dollars in public money into various bank accounts not in his name but from which he withdrew cash, including at the central bank.
The Jammeh Foundation for Peace’s former deputy CEO, Modou Lamin Manga, told Reuters that the charity did not at the time receive donations via the dollar account, which was one of two accounts held in the foundation’s name at Trust Bank during Manga’s tenure from 2010 to 2015. Manga was let go from the foundation during layoffs in 2015.
The Jammeh Foundation for Peace did not respond to multiple requests for comment. An official at Gambia’s Trust Bank Ltd, who declined to be named, confirmed the foundation banked there but declined to give further details.
Attempts to contact Jammeh in Equatorial Guinea, where he fled into exile last month after an election defeat, were unsuccessful.
Edward Gomez, Jammeh’s lawyer until last month, said he was unaware of any misspending by Jammeh. “I know that many people have benefited from the foundation but I can’t say where the money came from and who had access to it,” Gomez said.
The bank statements reviewed by Reuters showed that over $8 million was deposited in 11 instalments into the U.S. dollar account in the foundation’s name at Trust Bank in 2012 and 2013. All of the money was withdrawn.
There were 15 cash withdrawals in 2012 and 2013, ranging from $75,000 to over $500,000: $4.3 million in total. A further $1.5 million was transferred to overseas accounts, the statements show. The remainder was drawn down in letters of credit, miscellaneous withdrawals and interest charges.
Some cash withdrawals give direct reference to Jammeh, who at the time was the foundation’s chief patron, meaning he lent his name in support of its work. Manga said Jammeh played only an occasional role in the foundation’s activities. These include education, health and agricultural projects, according to its website.
In March 2013, a $75,930 withdrawal was detailed as: “CASH WDL B/O DR YAHYA AJJ JAMMEH”. A Trust Bank worker interviewed by Reuters said that B/O stood for “by order of” and WDL stood for “withdrawal”.
Reuters was unable to determine the source of most of the money in the account.
But five payments into the account in 2013 totaling $2.55 million reference Euro African Group, or its acronym EAGL, according to the transaction details on the statements, including one $500,000 payment on May 8, 2013 described as “FUNDS TRF B/O EURO AFRICAN.”
Euro African held exclusive rights to import fuel to Gambia between 2008 and 2013 and a fuel supply deal to the state-run utility.
Euro African head Mohamed Bazzi told Reuters the company made three payments to the foundation totalling $1.3 million in 2013. Bazzi did not specify which account the money was paid into. Reuters was unable to account for the difference between this total and that reflected on the bank statements. Bazzi was unable to explain the difference.
Bazzi, a prominent Lebanese businessman who has done business in Gambia for over a decade, told Reuters the money went towards a mosque, a hospital and bringing in foreign doctors to Gambia. Bazzi said Euro African made the payments on behalf of a telecommunications company that he declined to name. The telecommunications company was a separate entity and the money was not Euro African’s money, he said.
The statements also show a $99,982.50 payment was made on April 17, 2013 by Selectra AG, a Swiss-based engineering firm. Selectra did not respond to requests for comment.
MONEY FOR SCHOLARSHIPS
The foundation’s former deputy CEO Manga said he first became aware of the account and the deposits when Trust Bank accidentally sent him statements for the dollar account in 2013. He said he thought the money could be used to fund scholarships and a hospital.
Unlike the Trust Bank account that the charity used for everyday expenses, this one held dollars, not dalasis, the local currency, and had far more money.
When Manga approached officials at Trust Bank Ltd about the account in 2013, they told him not to touch the money, he said. The account manager told him it was “Yahya’s” (Jammeh’s) account, Manga said.
“We were struggling to run communities and we had all this money in this account. Why couldn’t we make use of it?” said Manga.
A former member of Jammeh’s staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he frequently collected money from the foundation dollar account at the president’s request and returned to State House with bags filled with cash in bundles of $10,000, wrapped in a paper band carrying the Trust Bank seal.
“Whenever Jammeh needed money, he would go to that (foundation) account and withdraw money. If his wife went travelling, they would take money out,” he said.
Reuters was unable to reach Jammeh’s wife, who until last month was the foundation’s president and closely involved in the running of the charity, according to the website.
Another source who worked as a personal assistant for Jammeh from 2009-2012 and who was fired and jailed for espionage, charges he denies, said he withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in 2011 and 2012 from another account called the National Security Account at Trust Bank, on Jammeh’s behalf.
Other times, he said he wired money from that account to Jammeh’s wife’s personal account in the United States.
Trust Bank declined to comment on the National Security Account and who had access to it.
ROLLS ROYCES, MANSIONS
Jammeh’s spending hinted at his riches. He had a fleet of black Rolls Royce limousines whose headrests carry his name embroidered in dark thread, and a house in Maryland, according to a Reuters witness and a U.S. official.
On a trip to New York for a UN summit in 2002, Jammeh had $1 million in cash in cellophane wrapping brought to his hotel room, his former lobbyist John Aycoth told Reuters. He bought expensive watches and tipped a dental hygienist $20,000, said Aycoth, who successfully sued the Gambian government in a US court for failure to compensate his firm in 2006.
Reuters could not independently confirm these accounts.
“I know he had great wealth. I have no doubt about that,” said Jammeh’s former lawyer Gomez.
Gambia’s new leaders said Jammeh took a fleet of luxury cars with him into exile.
Now, in the aftermath of his rule, many Gambians demand his wealth be returned immediately. The country’s economy is in tatters with only three weeks left of import funds.
“The president and his government will take all steps and measures to ensure that all the lost, stolen and misappropriated assets are returned to the Gambian people,” Gambian Finance Minister Sanneh told reporters on Monday.
Be Patient: Government is not like running a Corner Shop (‘Bitiki Narr’)!
By Sheriff Kora
The year 2016 and the historic events leading to the elections and the political impasse
that followed in The Gambia will go down deep in our political history for several
reasons. The greatest achievement of the year was undoutedly the electoral defeat of
Jammeh and cutting short what would have been his fifth-term of unrestrained tyranny.
Besides uplifting hopes for countless citizens fighting against dictatorship in Africa, these
events have also led to the biggest leadership and constitutional crisis in our national
history. Although the protracted crisis was finally resolved without any force or violence,
the events and the crisis that unfolded have tested the constitution of the country to the
core, and severely challenged the principle of separation of powers between the three
organs of government (executive, judiciary, and executive). For the first time, over 50,
000 Gambian fled en masse seeking refuge in neighboring countries.
The dust has settled, and democracy and the sovereign will of the people ultimately won
the order of the day. On the 19th of January Gambians proudly watched the inauguration
of Adama Barrow as the president of the Third Republic. The pomp and fare that marked
the Independence Day celebration last week, was a clear indication that a new dawn has
arose in The Gambia. However, it is worthy to state that a simple electoral victory and
change of political leadership in Banjul will not mean that new prosperity we seek would
be achieved overnight. Doris Lessing said it best in her book African Laughter – “look at
the past if you want to see the future.” Given the financial mismanagement, social and
political tyranny that has cemented the APRC government in The Gambia over the past
22 years, followed by the December political crisis that has sent the national economy
into a tailspin, president Barrow and the coalition government have an uphill battle to
climb.
Objective criticism and a vibrant opposition are essential ingredients of a democracy.
Fittingly, it is a great sign of victory that new spaces for political dialogue are now
created where all genuine citizens with an agenda, a set of commitments, and beliefs can
debate about how they would like the future Gambia to be. The Barrow government has
been in office barely a month, and we’ve already heard all sorts of accusations, criticism
of inefficiency, tribalism, and nepotism levied against them. Diaspora rabble-rousers in
the past regime have now shifted focus and re-energized their efforts towards the new
government. It is the sacred right of every Gambian to express his or her opinion on
matters of concern to them, but it is also important to realize that rights come with
responsibility. It helps to be reminded that there is a fine line between reality and rhetoric
in political discourse. Running a government is different from running a corner shop.
Government is messy and complicated business.
Like many objective critics, I too strong support setting up a commission of inquiry to
investigate the atrocities committed by the past regime, and to bring justice to the victims.
I do belief there is an urgent need for institutional reform, proper installation of the rule
of law, and a purge in the security forces. There is a litany of policy and legal reforms our
country has to go through in order to get back on track. I am not a member of the
coalition government, neither am I a Barrow apologist. My loyalty is solely to my
country, and to the ideals on which it stands – freedom, fairness, and equality for all.
However, as a student of government, there are two things that make me empathetic to
Barrow and his coalition government:
1.One of the worst things about taking power is that to keep your dreams they have
to narrow themselves to the necessities of keeping power (Doris Lessing –
African Laughter). From the outside, people at the heart of government look very
powerful, but on the inside they are lonely, helpless and weak from the numerous
expectations of the citizens and the difficulty of fulfilling all these expectations. It
gets more complicated for our new government based on the fact that they
inherited a government saddled with high indebtedness, corruption, and low
human capital.
2.Moreover, the wise leader wouldn’t want to do every transformation agenda at
once. The risk would be high. Hence the need for prioritizing and sequencing in
the delivery of service. Barrow is the president of a coalition government, and
once a coalition government is formed, agreements need to be properly managed,
relationships built around competing interest. This requires some level of
expertise because most of the sustainable economic development problems this
new government faces are not simple fixes but complex ones. Government’s
approach has to be in lockstep with the most urgent events and issues at hand,
We just freed our country from a government that has embarrassed and insulted us with
unrestrained personal spending, corruption, empty promises, international isolation and
blatant lies. Consequently, one can understand the impatience and frustration of many
Gambians seeking immediate justice and reforms. However, we should not let our
emotions betray our conscience. The task of reforming Gambia’s socio-economic and
political institutions seems so vast that it is tempting to throw one’s hands up and give up
on the assertion that it cannot be done. As such, president Barrow and his executive have
to adopt sustainable methods of reform and engage stakeholders to ensure the policy
advice they receive is sound and of high quality.
The coalition leaders proved their patience and astute leadership qualities in ensuring that
the presidential election crisis was addressed and the change agenda wasn’t derailed. I
believe with patience, God’s beneficence, and the continuous support of all Gambians,
our political leaders will bring the necessary institutional reforms, reconciliation, justice,
environment and inclusive economic development policies that are important to the
prosperity and general well being of all Gambians.