The millionaire accounts in San Marino of the former first lady of Burkina Faso- Corriere.it
Where do the millions of euros of the former first lady of Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in the world, come from and what are they doing in San Marino? money stolen from the people, ruled by her husband Blaise Compaor until 2014, or a legitimately accumulated personal wealth? From the tight meshes that concern the story, news and some confidential information filter out. Chantal Terrasson de Fougres, conjugated Compare, 67, had long since transferred his accounts from European institutions (presumably Switzerland) to a bank in the Republic of San Marino which is 3,700 km from Burkina Faso. Then they seized them for confiscation. They have recently been released.
Money laundering and philanthropy
Perch seized? Ms. Compaor, the subject of an investigation into money laundering related to the profits of the crimes of corruption, embezzlement and theft of public resources, written in an act of the Court of San Marino. The procedure in the preliminary phase and therefore covered by secrecy. But from what has been reconstructed, the “treasure” would have been fueled – according to the assumptions of the prosecution – by alleged illicit profits linked to the role of her husband Blaise, leader from 1987 to 2014 of Burkina Faso, the former Upper Volta, 62% illiterate , average annual income 1,700 euros. Yet Chantal Compaor known and appreciated for her philanthropic and charitable activities throughout Africa, she has worked for health, education, women’s empowerment and child protection.
The denunciation of the Aif
The investigations began with AIF, the San Marino anti-money laundering authority. Unthinkable circus in the boom years of Titano-banks when the controlling authorities appointed public relations rather than audits. But now the small Republic aligned with the more advanced countries. Compaor was the classic “pep”, a politically exposed person, therefore subject to more rigorous monitoring according to international law. The same “lighthouse pep” that also illuminates the transactions and accounts via San Marino of the clan of Denis Sassou Nguesso, the dictator of Congo Brazzaville. Nguesso’s “family and friends” had relied on the French broker Philippe Chironi who managed the proceeds of corruption for their spending sprees: luxury Parisian hotels from 11 thousand euros per night the tailor Max Evzeline cost 2.5 million, crocodile shoes (114 thousand), laundries (Duval in Paris: 334 thousand euro bill), private jets, 60 luxury cars to get around, etc. For that matter the intermediary Chironi was sentenced in 2019 to over 6 years for money laundering. According to unconfirmed sources, there are traces of the same professionals in the Burkina Faso affair. a common element is the institution where, years ago, the Other funds in the Compaor financial institution landed, then managed and invested until recently: the Banca Commerciale Sammarinese, commissioners and closed by the Central Bank of Titano (all merged with Cassa di Risparmio di San Marino). So after the report and the complaint of the AIF on Mrs. Compaor’s deposits, who did not appear to have activities compatible with that patrimony, the ball passed to the judiciary which opened a criminal proceeding, still in progress. And here, in the accusation-defense dialectic, after the kidnapping of 2019, at the end of 2021 the third instance judge ordered the unblocking of the accounts. Why the release from seizure?
Three million = 1,764 years of production
First let’s see the figures: according to reliable sources it would be at least 2-3 million of liquidity, a current account and a securities account to which financial instruments are registered. The figure should be related to the size of the Burkinab economy. To set aside 3 million euros an average worker in Burkina Faso would have to work 1,764 years without touching the required. The provision, however, marks an important point in favor of the defense, supported by the lawyer Alessandro Cardelli.
No evidence of the allegations
Judge Oliviero Mazza says that the investigations carried out through international letters rogatory have not yet given concrete results. And then the initial hypothesis that the sums on the current accounts were the profit of the money laundering crime as the result of corruption by her husband, after almost three years from the start of the procedure, still remains of a purely conjectural nature, since no one was acquired. concrete element of confirmation. Moreover, according to the judge, the upstream sums passed through other EU banks and therefore subjected to adequate verification. In short, the amounts seized actually have a presumable legal origin and Chantal Compaor cannot be asked, in an undue reversal of the burden of proof, from which the lawful heritage of hers derives from. So the money was “released” and – supposedly – flown away from San Marino a second later. The main proceedings, however, are always open.
Why a small bank in San Marino?
We will see if the doubts of this affair are definitively clarified, in one sense or another. For example, why an Ivorian lady married to the leader of Burkina Faso, instead of putting money in home banks or in a large international institution, decides to rely (or authorize her consultants to do so) to a very secluded, unscrupulous banquet , protected (until they have closed it) of a very small country that is still paying, like some African states, for the years of power of an oligarchy complicit in the financial underworld. The opaque way of these investments raises doubts about their origin and, consequently, about whether they should remain covered. The lawyer Cardelli – consulted on the phone – preferred to keep the whole affair confidential.
Mrs Compaor’s reasons
But there are two other elements in favor of the former first lady. The first was that the accounts were registered directly to her without the full coverage of corporate construction or fiduciary registrations. The second derives from his kinship (nephew) with Flix Houphout-Boigny, the noble father of the Ivory Coast. This would remove her (perhaps even economically) from her husband’s shadow. Today the old leader of Burkina Faso in exile, with his wife Chantal, in the Ivory Coast of which he has taken citizenship. Meanwhile, in his country of origin, plagued by jihadist terrorist attacks, a trial was opened last October against him and 13 other defendants for the murder, 34 years ago, of Thomas Sankara, the African “Che Guevara”.