🇨🇩 DRC: Battle for Gold [ #Investigation]
Chapter 1: A Cheerful Retirement
Do you have plans for retirement? Personally, I want to save enough money and then just sit at home growing cabbage. But not everyone finds such a peaceful lifestyle appealing.
For example, businessman and banker, former DRC Vice Minister Victor Kasongo prefers racketeering and asset grabbing. After years of serving his homeland and former Congolese President Joseph Kabila, he decided to pursue something more exciting — and tried to seize the gold assets of the Canadian company Banro (spoiler: it didn’t work out as he planned).
👆 If that kind of leisure activity sounds interesting, let me tell you how it went in practice:
But first, let me introduce you to the Canadian company Banro. Banro was unlucky — the company bet everything on Congo and spectacularly lost in a brutal African roulette.
🔸 Initially, Banro tried to enter the DRC gold mining sector in the late 1990s but failed because of the 1998–2003 war.
🔸 When Banro finally gained access to the Congolese deposits — specifically Twangiza, Namoya, Kamituga, and Lugushwa — it took about ten more years of design and construction work before the Twangiza mine poured its first gold bar in 2012.
🔸 By the time the second mine, Namoya, produced its first gold in 2016, the company was already doomed, though that wasn’t yet obvious. After the opening of Namoya, company workers were attacked by local militias of the Mai-Mai Malaika group, who made money from artisanal mining at the same site.
🔸 Between 2016 and 2019, Banro had to suspend its operations at least three times because of these attacks, and after four Namoya employees were kidnapped in July 2019, Banro declared force majeure and permanently ceased all operations in the DRC.
⏩ Some local insurgents — sure, that happens all the time in these parts. But did that really mean they had to shut down completely? ⏪
🔸Meanwhile, starting in 2014, the company had accumulated heavy debt with its main investors — the American Gramercy Fund Management andthe Chinese Baiyin Nonferrous Group. Due to constant disruptions, Banro became unable to meet its obligations, leading to a restructuring in 2018, after which Baiyin and Gramercy significantly increased their stakes in the company. In the end, the Chinese held about 32% of Banro — an important number, remember it.
🔸 In 2020, after declaring force majeure, Banro initiated a preventive settlement procedure with its local creditors in the DRC. And this is where Victor Kasongo Shomari entered the scene — former Vice Minister of Mines, mining entrepreneur, associate (and possibly distant relative) of ex-President Joseph Kabila, and a senior figure in banks and funds that managed the economic interests of the former president and his entourage.
🔸Kasongo heads the Shomka Group, which, according to him, obtained control over Banro’s assets through a ruling by the Commercial Court of Kinshasa during that same preventive settlement process — or so he claims loudly everywhere.
The funny thing is that before this process, Shomka Group had absolutely nothing to do with Banro - but we'll discuss it in the second part. Scroll down. 👇
Devils Below
🇨🇩 DRC: Battle for Gold [ #Investigation ]
Chapter 3: A Bigger Fish
Picture this: a man sipping coffee on the Caribbean coast, breathing in the humid Colombian air. A month later, he’s appointed special envoyof the Congolese president, trying to navigate the twists of local politics — or rather, to find out where money might be siphoned from.
⏩ This is how the second key player enters our story — Luc Gérard Nyafé — whose group of companies called Stratégos is still fighting Kasongo's Shomka Resources for ownership of Banro’s former assets.
🔸Nyafé is believed to be a South American businessman of Congolese origin who made his fortune in Colombia managing the investment fund Tribeca Asset Management, the Stratégos Group, and two mining firms — Auplata Mining Group and La Compagnie Minière de Touissit (Morocco).
🔸In the DRC, he was virtually unknown until 2019, when he suddenly appeared at a meeting with President Tshisekedi in February 2019 (just a month after Tshisekedi had been sworn in himself) and was soon appointed his special envoy.
🔸 Luc Gérard Nyafé adapted quickly. Within a year of his appointment, one of his companies — Stratégos Group LLC — was selected as the contractor for the Special Economic Zone Maluku project near Kinshasa. By September 2021, it was already known that Stratégos planned to buy Banro’s assets.
⏩ At this point, Kasongo’s illegal scheme encountered an unexpected obstacle — the ambitions of the new president’s favorite.
🔸 Apparently, at some point Banro changed its mind about giving away its assets for free and demanded that Shomka withdraw from the site. Instead, in December 2022 Banro reached an agreement to sell its assets to Luc Gérard Nyafé, although the details of that deal remain unknown.
🔸The only information available suggests that Nyafé sought Chinese investors for the purchase, as the holding that took ownership of the assets was named Oriental Jinzi (see the letter from Stratégos to Namoya Mining S.A. employees below). Locals believe that the investor is the company Zinji, noting the syllable swap “Zin-ji” / “Jin-zi,” although in Chinese "Jinzi" simply means “gold.”
⏩ But even here, things didn’t go as planned.
🔸First, the special envoy apparently fell out of favor quite quickly — in April 2022 Stratégos Group LLC lost the right to develop the SEZ, and by April 2023 Nyafé had left his post entirely.
🔸 Second, it appears that before Nyafé entered the scene, in 2021, the Commercial Court of Kinshasa had already approved a debt settlement agreement between Banro and its creditors, leaving Shomka with certain residual rights to the mines. It’s quite possible that the settlement reached in April 2021, under the supervision of the court, allows Shomka to claim not monetary compensation but an actual equity stake — one that Stratégos now refuses to share.
To this day, Nyafé and Kasongo continue to dispute ownership of the mines — which, in the meantime, remain idle.
Who will eventually come out victorious in this story? Nobody knows. What we can tell for sure is who will actually lose - it is ordinary Congolese who will lose the most - jobs and tax revenues, while big guys try to sort things out.
Devils Below
🇨🇩 DRC: Battle for Gold [ #Investigation ]
Chapter 2: Racketeering — a DIY Kit
One does not need a PHD to do racketeering - it as simple as that.
Kasongo himself claims that in June 2020 Banro approached him and his group of companies to help secure the safety of Banro’s workers from the attacks of the local militias. Allegedly, in exchange, Banro gave Kasongo the Namoya mine — first for temporary management, and then permanently. :)
In reality, the former vice minister simply decided to snatch the assets of a dying company, using his connections and his position within the elite formed under former President Kabila.
Here’s a clear step-by-step guide for beginners on how this is done:
🔸 Victor Kasongo was not only a former vice minister but also a former board member of several major Congolese banks — Banque Commerciale Du Congo (BCDC), BGFI Bank, and President Kabila’s investment vehicle Kwanza Capital.
🔸 In turn, BCDC was Banro’s main domestic creditor in 2020. Official Gazette publications about the preventive settlement process show that Banro’s subsidiary Namoya Mining S.A. owed BCDC around $10 million.
🔸 Putting two and two together, Kasongo decided to exploit the system and use the preventive settlement process to take Banro’s assets for himself at the expense of other creditors.
To pull off this scheme, Kasongo followed this playbook:
🔸He first leveraged his connections within BCDC and possibly the government, promising both parties a share of the potential benefits from transferring Banro’s assets into his hands.
🔸🔸Then he approached the Chinese — Baiyin Nonferrous Group, which, as noted, had increased its share in Banro in 2018. By 2020, Baiyin apparently sensed where things were heading, decided to part ways with the unlucky Canadians, and accepted Kasongo’s offer. According to filings from the Company Register of Hong Kong, Baiyin obtained in his company the same 35% share it had in Banro.
🔸🔸🔸Finally, Kasongo contacted Banro, demanding that, as part of the settlement process with BCDC, the Namoya mine be transferred for temporary management to Shomka Resources — a company from the Shomka Group, registered in Hong Kong shortly beforehand precisely to intercept Banro’s assets.
... And there is also an even more criminal nuance 👇
Devils Below
🇨🇩 DRC: Battle for Gold [ #Investigation]
Chapter 1: A Cheerful Retirement
Do you have plans for retirement? Personally, I want to save enough money and then just sit at home growing cabbage. But not everyone finds such a peaceful lifestyle appealing.
For example, businessman and banker, former DRC Vice Minister Victor Kasongo prefers racketeering and asset grabbing. After years of serving his homeland and former Congolese President Joseph Kabila, he decided to pursue something more exciting — and tried to seize the gold assets of the Canadian company Banro (spoiler: it didn’t work out as he planned).
👆 If that kind of leisure activity sounds interesting, let me tell you how it went in practice:
But first, let me introduce you to the Canadian company Banro. Banro was unlucky — the company bet everything on Congo and spectacularly lost in a brutal African roulette.
🔸 Initially, Banro tried to enter the DRC gold mining sector in the late 1990s but failed because of the 1998–2003 war.
🔸 When Banro finally gained access to the Congolese deposits — specifically Twangiza, Namoya, Kamituga, and Lugushwa — it took about ten more years of design and construction work before the Twangiza mine poured its first gold bar in 2012.
🔸 By the time the second mine, Namoya, produced its first gold in 2016, the company was already doomed, though that wasn’t yet obvious. After the opening of Namoya, company workers were attacked by local militias of the Mai-Mai Malaika group, who made money from artisanal mining at the same site.
🔸 Between 2016 and 2019, Banro had to suspend its operations at least three times because of these attacks, and after four Namoya employees were kidnapped in July 2019, Banro declared force majeure and permanently ceased all operations in the DRC.
⏩ Some local insurgents — sure, that happens all the time in these parts. But did that really mean they had to shut down completely? ⏪
🔸Meanwhile, starting in 2014, the company had accumulated heavy debt with its main investors — the American Gramercy Fund Management andthe Chinese Baiyin Nonferrous Group. Due to constant disruptions, Banro became unable to meet its obligations, leading to a restructuring in 2018, after which Baiyin and Gramercy significantly increased their stakes in the company. In the end, the Chinese held about 32% of Banro — an important number, remember it.
🔸 In 2020, after declaring force majeure, Banro initiated a preventive settlement procedure with its local creditors in the DRC. And this is where Victor Kasongo Shomari entered the scene — former Vice Minister of Mines, mining entrepreneur, associate (and possibly distant relative) of ex-President Joseph Kabila, and a senior figure in banks and funds that managed the economic interests of the former president and his entourage.
🔸Kasongo heads the Shomka Group, which, according to him, obtained control over Banro’s assets through a ruling by the Commercial Court of Kinshasa during that same preventive settlement process — or so he claims loudly everywhere.
The funny thing is that before this process, Shomka Group had absolutely nothing to do with Banro - but we'll discuss it in the second part. Scroll down. 👇
Devils Below
🇨🇩 DRC: Battle for Gold [ #Investigation]
A vivid illustration of how elites fight for resources — the case of the Democratic Republic of Congo
🔎 In our observation of African resource industries, we came across a fascinating story - illustrative of how elite politics works and how African gold becomes the subject of inter-elite rivalry with the example of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Prepare yourself for a trip through the wild world of Congolese the undercover struggle for gold rent. I promise that by the end, you'll have a much better understanding of what the struggle over African resources really is like.
🔗Here are links, that will help you navigate through the story:
Chapter 1. A Cheerful Retirement
Chapter 2. Racketeering — a DIY Kit
An Important Remark
Chapter 3. A Bigger Fish
Devils Below
Former special counsel Jack Smith is offering to testify in open hearings before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees about the federal investigations into President Trump's handling of sensitive documents and alleged efforts to subvert the transfer of power after the 2020 election, according to a letter from his lawyers to lawmakers.
In the letter obtained by CBS News, Smith's lawyers said he is prepared to answer questions from Congress about the investigations he oversaw and prosecutions of Mr. Trump that stemmed from them, but said doing so "requires assurance from the Department of Justice that he will not be punished for doing so."
Lawyers Lanny Breuer and Peter Koski said Smith needs guidance from the Justice Department about federal grand jury secrecy requirements and authorization as to the issues he can speak about, including the second volume of his final report, which he completed before leaving the role of special counsel. The first volume of Smith's report pertains to the investigation that stemmed from alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and it was submitted to Congress in mid-January. But the second volume, which covers Mr. Trump's handling of sensitive government documents after leaving the White House in 2021, has not been made public.
Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland said in January that he would not release the second volume of Smith's final report because a criminal case involving two of Mr. Trump's co-defendants was ongoing. But after Mr. Trump returned to the White House for a second term, the case against the two, aide Walt Nauta and former Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira, was tossed out.
Both cases against Mr. Trump arising from Smith's investigations ended after he won the presidential election last November.
#Trump#Investigation
👂More on Trump's Ear ⚠️
#Investigation
#online_Greece
#КультМедиа
Репортеры и журналисты из разных стран мира, имеющие мало опыта в проведении журналистских расследований (или совсем без опыта в этой области), могут подать заявки.
Глобальная сеть журналистов-расследователей (GIJN) в партнерстве с iMEDпринимает заявки на участие в учебном курсе «Введение в журналистику расследований».
Участники получат навыки, которые дадут им возможность ориентироваться в тонкостях проведения журналистских расследований и помогут в будущем проводить расследования в самых разных сферах.
Курс состоит из двух частей: первая включает 10 практических онлайн-занятий, а вторая пройдет очно в Греции, занятия будут вести ведущие мировые тренеры в области журналистских расследований.
Онлайн-занятия начнутся 3 сентября и будут проходить каждый вторник в течение восьми недель.
Курс бесплатный, организаторы отберут 12 участников.
Заявки принимаются до 19
мая, подробности тут eng
t.me/cult_media
🕵️♂️ Journalists found chaos in the investigation of Epstein's death
CBS News has published materials showing that the federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s death in a Manhattan prison was conducted with gross violations of procedure. ⚠️
Investigators did not interview key witnesses, failed to perform basic forensic tests, and did not preserve evidence. The body was removed before the FBI arrived, and photos show that objects in the cell had been moved.
By the time the FBI arrived — seven hours later — the cell had “changed beyond recognition.” Evidence tags were never installed to preserve the original scene. 📸
Reports and photos contradict each other: items appear differently in images than in documentation, and the noose described by pathologists does not match the one seen in pictures.
The Department of Justice officially stated in 2023 that Epstein committed suicide, but his brother and lawyers insist the case was never properly investigated. ⚖️
Many prisoners and staff were never questioned, and the collected evidence was left unverified. Experts argue that the errors and inconsistencies of the investigation cast serious doubt on the suicide version.
#Epstein#DOJ#FBI#Investigation
👂More on Trump's Ear ⚠️
📝How German Companies Help in Strikes on Crimea📝
Germany's militarization has affected all economic sectors, not just the defense industry. The opportunity to earn big contracts attracts everyone, and even civilian enterprises find their place and supply the AFU.
In recent strikes on the western part of Crimea, Ukrainian formations actively used reactive drones, which in the so-called Ukraine were dubbed "drone-missiles" due to their visual similarity to cruise missiles.
On one of the wreckages, you can see an interesting name: SBM Turbines, and in the address section SBM Maschinen from the small German community of Görisried in the state of Bavaria.
🔻What is this company?
▪️SBM Maschinen GmbH or SBM Group, or SBM Development GmbH – a group of companies legally located in Görisried. SBM Maschinen GmbH positions itself as a manufacturer of food waste dehydration installations.
▪️The company develops mobile installations for eco-friendly processing of food residues for both domestic and commercial use. Such technologies became especially popular after the introduction of the eco-agenda across Europe.
🖍It would seem, what is the connection between plastic bottle shredders and military production? Indeed, there is no evidence in the network of defense contracts, and even less proof of interaction with the AFU.
🔻
So how does SBM Maschinen produce jet engines for the AFU?
➡️
As it turned out, the company has a subsidiary called Rotortec. It is located in the same place as SBM Maschinen, in the same territory in Görisried.
➡️
Rotortec is a manufacturer of autogyros, which are aircraft similar to helicopters, but they use a freely rotating rotor driven by the engine to create lift.
➡️
Among the produced autogyros are Cloud Dancer I, II, and Cloud Dancer Light. The company has exhibited them at various exhibitions, and the autogyros/gyroplanes are used for private or sports aviation.
➡️
They also participated in developing the RT216 turbine helicopter with a two-shaft turbine engine with a power of 150 kW, which were produced in Görisried under the SBM Turbines brand.
🚩It turns out that the waste management company has a subsidiary specializing in the development and production of small gas turbine engines. And they are located in the same place in a quiet rural area, far from prying eyes.
🏳️The scheme of civilian companies profiting from military contracts is nothing new: we have been seeing this especially often in recent months, with one commercial enterprise after another suddenly starting to work in the interests of the military-industrial complex.
❗️The German company SBM Maschinen had successfully avoided public attention. Not a single mention of their work for the Ukrainian military-industrial complex could be found online—until now.
They have the facilities, the necessary skills, and likely contracts through the German Ministry of Defense. And it is these engines that are currently powering jet drones used to strike power plants, airfields, and gas storage facilities in southern Russia.
#Germany#investigation#Russia#Ukraine
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