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Looting Angola's Sovereign Wealth Fund 🇦🇴 [ Budget Hole ] If a government does take money away from oil companies, that still doesn't mean it is able to spend it properly 💲 Countries that receive windfall revenues from resources often realise that simply spending them is not very wise and create special funds that are supposed to invest in the developmentofnon-extractive sectors, such as construction or IT. Just as often, these funds end up overrun by corruption. 🛢 One such example was Angola’s Sovereign Wealth Fund (FSDEA), created to invest revenues from oil sales but in practice becoming a source of enrichment for elite circles. 💲 Angola established the FSDEA in 2012 with an investment of $5 billion. The fund’s goal was “to promote growth, prosperity, and social and economic development.” 🚮 That same year, Angola’s president, José Eduardo dos Santos, appointed his son, José Filomeno dos Santos, as chairman of the FSDEA. Since managing a state fund is always more enjoyable together with friends, the president’s son invited the firm of his friend Jean-Claude Bastos to manage the fund’s investments. 🥅 From there the scheme was simple: Jean-Claude Bastos' consulting company received fees for its services, which is already corruption. The consulting firm also advised the fund to invest in other projects of the Angolan prince’s friend. 💸 In total, at least $150 million was lost through such schemes. Another $3 billion remained under the management of Jean-Claude Bastos until 2019, when Angola’s new government began to untangle the fund’s affairs and regained control over its assets. Both Bastos and the president’s son appeared before an Angolan court, but were later acquitted. 🛢 Angola is one of the largest oil producers in Africa, with production contributing about 50% of the nation’s GDP and >90% of its exports, yet it is simultaneously in the top-10 unequal countries in the world as measured by the Gini coefficient. #BudgetHole ➡️ Follow to stay informed - @devilsbelow

$10 Million for the World’s Largest Deposit [ Budget Hole ] 📍 In the second half of the 2010s, one of the world’s largest iron ore deposits in Guinea was given to a company with no experience in mining. The price of the deal:$10 million for the president’s wife. ✡️ Between 2006 and 2010, the Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz and his company BSGR were in a collecting mood. They were gathering licenses for the Simandou deposit and nearby iron ore fields in southeastern Guinea. ✅ To make their collection truly complete, they needed to intercept certain rights already held by another company. So in 2008, Steinmetz approached the young wife of President Lansana Conté, Mamadie Touré, and offered her about $10 million. 🏷Brief background: 🔴Today, the Simandou deposit — one of the largest in the world — is being operated by a consortium of Chinese firms and the Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto. The first shipment of iron ore, around 200 thousand tons, was sent to China in early December 2025. 🔴According to forecasts, once at full capacity, Simandou will be able to export up to 120 million tons of ore per year, which will increase global seaborne supply by almost 9%. 🌟 The magical effect of the First Lady worked, and the president, already literally on his deathbed, signed a decree stripping several licenses from the Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto and awarding them to BSGR, which had no experience working with iron ore. 💰 In 2010, Steinmetz, satisfied and having invested only around $170 million into the entire venture, sold 51% of his assets to a company called Vale for $2.5 billion. 🔴 The story surfaced thanks to a change of power in Guinea. In November 2010, a new president, Alpha Condé, came to office. He decided to clean up after his predecessor and revoked all rights held by both BSGR and Vale. 🇨🇭 At the same time, in 2013, at Guinea’s request, a legal case was opened in Switzerland. Although in 2019 Steinmetz and the Guinean government, with the mediation of French president Sarkozy, resolved their disputes (again in a not transparent way), in January 2021 a Geneva court sentenced Steinmetz to five years in prison. #BudgetHole ➡️ Follow to stay informed - @devilsbelow

At The Core of Africa's Corruption [ Budget Hole ] Western companies speak about responsible business, transparency and environmental protection so often, that one could think their fuel does not emit CO2, and John could baptize Jesus with water from tailings of their plants. 🌟 However, behind the curtain the same companies can as easily move bags of cash on private jets to win oil deals. One such instance is Glencore whose staff paid more than 100 million dollars in bribes to officials in Africa and Latin America. Glencore is a Swiss-based giant that trades oil, fuel and metals. From about 2007 to 2018, its agents issued fake invoices and withdrew so much cash from ATMs that it would suffice to cover the budget of a couple of small towns - all in order to establish "contacts" with local officials in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo. For instance, in DRC Glencore used an Israeli businessman Dan Gertler to negotiate mining deals on non-market terms. In 2008 Gertler, around $10 million in hand, negotiated with Joseph Kabila's government to help Glencore get cheaper prices for Katanga Mining. He also bought shares from a state-owned company in Mutanda and Kansuki mines at far below their market value in 2011. Of course, time passes and all this could not have gone unnoticed. In 2022 in the wake of lawsuits filed in 2018 in the US and UK, Glencore agreed to pay more than 1.5 billion dollars in penalties, mostly to the US - a little over 1 billion dollars. ➡️ So, has corruption been defeated - or is it not? How is it that they paid a $1 billion fine in the United States, while the US has not suffered any losses because of Glencore's actions? Here is a catch - DRC and other victims of Glencore's gambles were only paid $230 million. The company kept all its main mines and trading rights in these countries. For comparison, in DRC in 2023 Glencore produced copper and cobalt worth of more than $3 billion. A perfect example how the lebel of accountability and responsibility works - the damage was caused to African countries and to its people, while fines were paid in Washington, with only a miserable share left for victims as a way to ensure the ongoing presence of Glencore in these countries. #BudgetHole Devils Below

🇳🇬Africa's Most Ambitious Oil Bribe [ Budget Hole ] When a person buys something at the price of X and sells it at the price of X2, this is called a business. It can be X3, even X4. X10 already starts to seem suspicious, especially if the buyer is the government. However, what about X500? 🌟OPL 245 is a deep-water oil block in the Niger Delta. Estimates say it holds about 9 billion barrels of crude, close to a quarter of Nigeria’s proven reserves. In 1998-2011 it became an object of one of Africa's most ambitious bribery schemes. It started in 1998, during the military era of General Sani Abacha, when the OPL 245 was acquiered by a company called Malabu Oil & Gas, owned by the then oil minister Dan Etete, for a miserable $20 million, of which he only paid around $2M. A new government revoked Malabu’s OPL 245 licence in 2001 and reassigned the block to Shell, which triggered years of legal battles between Malabu, Shell (and later Eni) and the Nigerian state. In 2011 Nigeria's new President Goodluck Jonathan pushed for a final solution. Malabu agreed to give up OPL 245 to the government for $1.092 billion. Shell and Eni in turn agreed to pay to the government the same $1.092 billion for the block, plus a $210 million bonus. ➡️The deal may seem unfair, as Dan Etete got the block almost for free and then sold it back to the state for $1.1B. In fact, it was even worse. When Shell and Eni sent their money to the Nigerian government's account in JP Morgan, some obscure manipulations on the part of the then office holders took place - and the bank was instructed to transfer around $875 million to accounts controlled by Malabu. ➡️Malabu did tried to return the money back to the officials - but not in the way it should have. Once the money reached Malabu, Dan Etete began to cash it out - all in order to remunerate the country's top leadership for their support via his middleman entrepreneur Aliyu Abubakar. The money could have been intended for the then President Jonathan, the country's Attorney General, the Minister of Petroleum and the National Security Adviser. The bribe case around OPL 245 has been brought before Italian, English and Nigerian courts. A criminal trial in Milan ended in 2021 with the acquittal of Shell, Eni and all managers. In London the High Court dismissed Nigeria’s claim against JPMorgan. In Abuja a court in 2024 discharged former Attorney General Mohammed Adoke and others having found the evidence not strong enough. Across all of these cases, no senior official in Nigeria and no executive in the companies has received a final prison sentence for OPL 245. The oilfield still has no production. #BudgetHole Devils Below