Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Congo ruler runs up £207,000 hotel bill (Debt Relief = PARTY TIME!!!)
The Sunday Times (UK) ^ | January 07, 2007 | Tony Allen-Mills

Posted on 01/07/2007 12:37:00 PM PST by Mount Athos

IN two short visits to New York last year the leader of one of Africa’s poorest countries spent $400,000 (£207,000) on hotel bills as members of his entourage drank Cristal champagne and charged tens of thousands of dollars of room service to accounts paid by the Republic of Congo’s mission to the United Nations.

Detailed hotel bills obtained by The Sunday Times showed that a Waldorf Astoria suite occupied by Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, chairman of the African Union, recorded £12,000 of room service charges during a five-night stay last April that cost his country £73,000.

When he returned to the same hotel during the UN general assembly meeting last September, almost £14,000 of room service was added to his bill during another five-night stay. His entourage, including several members of his family, occupied 44 rooms which together ran up a bill of £130,000 — comfortably more than the £106,000 that Britain gave the country in humanitarian aid last year.

The latest revelations about Sassou-Nguesso’s lavish travel habits have appalled anti-corruption campaigners and embarrassed the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Last year they agreed to a large debt relief package on the grounds that the country — known as Congo-Brazzaville to distinguish it from its neighbour, the Democratic Republic of Congo — was too poor to meet its financial commitments.

“In what sense are these hotel bills a good use of Congo-Brazzaville’s money when the majority of the population doesn’t have electricity or drinking water?” said Sarah Wykes of Global Witness, an anti-corruption group active in the region.

More than 70% of Congo- Brazzaville’s 3m people live off less than £1 a day, despite the wealth generated by its oil industry which earned an estimated £1.3 billion in 2006.

Concern that oil profits were being siphoned off for the benefit of the country’s ruling elite led to controversy last year when The Sunday Times first published details of Sassou-Nguesso’s New York hotel bills after a previous visit in 2005.

Paul Wolfowitz, head of the World Bank, reportedly delayed the debt relief deal after learning that aides to Sassou-Nguesso had paid £100,000 in cash towards a September 2005 hotel bill totalling £169,000.

Despite his luxurious tastes attracting worldwide publicity, Sassou-Nguesso’s only concession to economy when he returned to New York before a meeting with President George W Bush last April was to stay in a £3,500- a-night “grand suite” in the Waldorf Towers, a luxury annex of the main hotel. The previous September he spent £4,500 a night for a triplex suite at the prestigious Palace hotel.

Most of the bills do not provide a breakdown of room service charges, but one visitor familiar with the Waldorf said they were so large that they must have included substantial quantities of expensive wines and spirits. The bills on September 19 included two bottles of Cristal champagne charged at £400.

Despite Wolfowitz’s corruption concerns, pressure from France and other African nations obliged the World Bank to implement a debt relief package. Yet two weeks after Sassou-Nguesso had committed himself to greater transparency about the handling of Congo-Brazzaville’s oil income, two of the country’s leading anti-corruption campaigners were arrested on what human rights activists claim were “trumped-up” charges.

Christian Mounzeo and Brice Mackosso were last month fined and given suspended 12-month prison sentences for allegedly stealing about £2,000 from international organisations — despite evidence that the money had not been misused.

“This government was given debt relief by the international community on the basis that it cleans up oil sector management,” said Wykes. “All that Mounzeo and Mackosso were trying to do was get better management of Congo’s wealth. And they became the victims of a government vendetta.”

Wykes contrasted the £2,000 that the two men were alleged to have stolen with the amounts detailed in the Sassou-Nguesso entourage’s hotel bills. “They are spending hundreds of thousands when the majority of the population is living in poverty,” she said.

Attempts to obtain a comment from Congo-Brazzaville’s embassy in Washington last week proved fruitless. But Sassou-Nguesso, a former Marxist who has twice seized power through coups, discussed his spending habits during an interview with Fortune magazine last June.

The president insisted that he was fighting to reduce corruption, and that when he was not on business trips he lived modestly in a two-bedroom villa in Brazzaville. He also accused international investors of trying to blacken his government’s name as part of a long-running feud over millions of dollars of unpaid Congolese debt that has been bought up by foreign hedge funds now attempting to recoup their investment.

Lawsuits in Britain and America have accused Congo-Brazzaville of selling its oil through a shady network of shell companies whose main purpose is to hide the country’s revenues from creditors. In one case in London brought by Kensington International, a British-based company, Mr Justice Cooke ruled in the High Court that Denis Gokana, head of the state oil company, had set up “sham” companies to “conceal the true facts” of a £20m oil sale.

Kensington is an affiliate of Elliott Management, a US investment fund which owns about $100m of Congo-Brazzaville debt. Sassou-Nguesso’s hotel bills have emerged as part of a New York racketeering court case in which Elliott claims that Congo-Brazzaville’s state-owned oil company conspired with BNP Paribas, a French bank, to defraud creditors by hiding the proceeds from stolen oil. The bank denies any wrongdoing Sassou-Nguesso told Fortune that the debt investors were “snakes in the ocean . . . vultures . . . and thug gangsters” who were seeking to profit from African poverty. “Who is stealing from the poor?” he asked.

Wykes and other experts noted that Sassou-Nguesso had promised the World Bank that oil revenues would be used for poverty reduction and economic development. “But where’s the evidence of that?” asked Wykes.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: bono; debtrelief
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last
Bob Geldalf & Bono campaigned hard for debt relief for African governments. Much money was spent towards this that could have gone towards other causes.

With their debt eliminated, corrupt african governments are free to immediately rack up debt to limit again for more mercedes and summer homes.

1 posted on 01/07/2007 12:37:03 PM PST by Mount Athos
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Mount Athos
“In what sense are these hotel bills a good use of Congo-Brazzaville’s money when the majority of the population doesn’t have electricity or drinking water?”

As Mr. Sassou-Nguesso might say, “Let them drink Cristal.”

2 posted on 01/07/2007 12:40:07 PM PST by dighton
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mount Athos

Congo ruler runs up £207,000 hotel




Damn those mini bar macadamia nuts!


3 posted on 01/07/2007 12:40:43 PM PST by durasell (!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mount Athos

Let them worry about their own country. It's not like our leaders don't waste our money too, and we have a heck of a lot more big spenders than they do.


4 posted on 01/07/2007 12:44:10 PM PST by CindyDawg (May your dreams be big and your worries be small (RF))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mount Athos

Denis Sassou-Nguesso

"When I go to NY I will party on your behalf!!!!"

5 posted on 01/07/2007 12:50:59 PM PST by raybbr (You think it's bad now - wait till the anchor babies start to vote.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mount Athos
Who is surprised what an African "official" does? Hell....some of these people literally eat their own people.

There is a reason why Africa is called the "dark continent"..and as islm grows in Africa...it only gets darker....

6 posted on 01/07/2007 12:51:07 PM PST by B.O. Plenty (liberalism, abortions and islam are terminal)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mount Athos

Don't forget Tony Blair.


7 posted on 01/07/2007 1:01:19 PM PST by Calvin Locke
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mount Athos

Did you really expect anything different from the Self-Anointed?


8 posted on 01/07/2007 1:02:28 PM PST by Hoodat ( ETERNITY - Smoking, or Non-smoking?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mount Athos
...as members of his entourage drank Cristal champagne...

A favorite among the hip-hop crowd as well. I doubt Cristal likes these associations, though. LOL.

9 posted on 01/07/2007 1:05:17 PM PST by Aikonaa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mount Athos
Despite Wolfowitz’s corruption concerns, pressure from France and other African nations obliged the World Bank to implement a debt relief package.

'Nuff said.

10 posted on 01/07/2007 1:06:54 PM PST by Hoodat ( ETERNITY - Smoking, or Non-smoking?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mount Athos

"More than 70% of Congo- Brazzaville’s 3m people live off less than £1 a day, despite the wealth generated by its oil industry which earned an estimated £1.3 billion in 2006."


11 posted on 01/07/2007 1:09:49 PM PST by nuconvert ([there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business] (...but his head is so tiny...))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mount Athos
Yeah, but the killer charge on the bill was for the cleanup after the barbecued goat incident involving a Persian rug and scorch marks on the ceiling.
12 posted on 01/07/2007 1:10:03 PM PST by NonValueAdded (Saddam is Dead! Bush's Fault. [Pray for our patriot brother, 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub.])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mount Athos

How much went to Mgumby's home delivery fried chicken and escort service?


13 posted on 01/07/2007 1:25:27 PM PST by knarf (Islamists kill each other ... News wall-to-wall, 24/7 .. don't touch that dial.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mount Athos
But Sassou-Nguesso, a former Marxist who has twice seized power through coups, discussed his spending habits during an interview with Fortune magazine last June.

Former Marxist my a**. There's no such thing. Africa is overrun with Muslims and despots. Cleaning it up will take more than we're ever going to be willing to commit, and I'm not talking about money.
14 posted on 01/07/2007 1:30:09 PM PST by Jaysun (I've never paid for sex in my life. And that's really pissed off a lot of prostitutes.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CindyDawg
Let them worry about their own country. It's not like our leaders don't waste our money too, and we have a heck of a lot more big spenders than they do.

Our people aren't eating their own seed corn and living in chicken shacks. That's why this guy's actions are so outrageous.
15 posted on 01/07/2007 1:31:51 PM PST by Jaysun (I've never paid for sex in my life. And that's really pissed off a lot of prostitutes.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Jaysun

You see a country in poverty and chaos. China sees a country rich in natural resources -- such as coltan, an essential component of cell phones, notebook computers and video game systems.

China will "clean up" the Congo, but the U.S. may not like the results.

Go ahead Google "China Congo" and see what comes up.


16 posted on 01/07/2007 1:35:22 PM PST by durasell (!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: durasell
The entire continent is rich in natural resources. China's brand of cleaning up is no different than the brand of cleaning that his been going on there for as long as I can remember.

To really clean it up we need to stop giving them money, encourage the spread of Christianity, and violently oppose anything less than free market capitalism.
17 posted on 01/07/2007 1:57:18 PM PST by Jaysun (I've never paid for sex in my life. And that's really pissed off a lot of prostitutes.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Jaysun

China's brand of cleaning up is probably giving away some of their horde of U.S. dollars to leaders in exchange for security by whatever means necessary and encouraging the spread of strong central socialized gubmints, i.e. communism.

But that's okay, because the U.S. is pretty much abandoning the continent anyway. Too expensive, too messy.


18 posted on 01/07/2007 2:04:12 PM PST by durasell (!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Mount Athos
I first thought it was a story about Cynthia McKinney, or the Ford family of Memphis....Their all the same.
19 posted on 01/07/2007 2:07:13 PM PST by AlexW (Reporting from Bratislava, Slovakia)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hoodat
France and other African nations

France is an African nation?

I know that it's geographically European, but that sentence says something completely different.

20 posted on 01/07/2007 2:14:28 PM PST by rabscuttle385 (Sic Semper Tyrannis * Allen for U.S. Senate in '08)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson