Recently, the Democratic Republic of Congo court convicted Gradi Koko Lobanga and Navy Malela and sentenced them to death over series of violations. The accused, two whistleblowers, were in absentia at the time of the verdict. Sources reported that they had fled the country and were living in exile in Europe.
The Outrage
Many were displeased by the court’s ruling considering the two whistleblowers were revealing the bank’s alleged dirty secrets when they were sued. The two former employees of the bank denounced and discredited it. Meanwhile, the bank accused the ex-employees of stealing their documents, violating banking secrecy, forged and used the forgeries in an organized gang. Part of the secrecy was Afriland Congo Bank accounts linked to sanctioned Israeli billionaires Dan Gertler, Hezbollah, and North Korea.
Of course, there was an uproar when anti-corruption organizations heard about the ruling. They termed it unfair and unjust, considering the two whistleblowers were not even present to tell their side of the story. In protecting the two sentenced men, the Platform for the Protection of Whistleblowers in Africa rejected the verdict and condemned the legislators for making such an unjust decision.
14 Organizations, dubbed Congo is not for sale, also took to rebuking the ruling. They also issued a statement criticizing how innocent men fighting corruption to better the country is killed.
“It is outrageous that two individuals working courageously for the common interest have been sentenced to death without even having had the opportunity to be heard or defended.”
Money Laundering Claims
There is a possibility the Afriland First Bank in DRC had been working with the Israeli billionaires in laundering their money. As there is not much evidence on the matter, no action has been taken.
The PPLAAF and anti-corruption NGO Global Witness were responsible for initiating the allegations in the Afriland First Bank upon Malela and Lobanga tipping them. The billionaire in question, Mr. Dan Gertler, has widespread mining assets in DRC. And he is alleged to have used a money-laundering network stretching from DRC to Europe and Israel to escape US sanctions against him.
The NGOs claimed that Mr. Gertler, who was close to DRC’s former President Kabila, had opened several bank accounts in Congolese branches of the Cameroon-based bank. Immediately after the revelation, the Afriland bank filed a complaint on two of its employees. And it was months later that the court declared execution of the two whistleblowers. It has been long since the courts in the Democratic Republic of Congo decided to execute an offender, and the NGOs were not about to let Malela and Lobanga be the first ones.
Why Sanctioning of Mr. Gertler?
In 2017, Mr. Gertler was accused of having caused DRC to lose 1.36 billion dollars in tax revenues. And it was then that the United States sanctioned him. The loss came about as Gertler underestimated the value of mining and oil assets he acquired through fraud.
It happens that the incident transpired at a time when Joseph Kabila, Gertler’s close friend, was in power. Though Gertler acquired a license during Trump’s regime to do business with the US and its banks, he is tied to several DRC controversies.
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