African civil society groups have filed a complaint against French billionaire Vincent Bolloré, his son Cyrille and Bolloré Group for alleged money laundering and concealment of what they claim are ill-gotten gains linked to port operations across Africa.
The complaint was submitted to the National Financial Prosecutor's Office in Paris on Tuesday by "Restitution pour l'Afrique" (RAF), a collective of 11 NGOs from six African countries: Togo, Guinea, Cameroon, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire and Democratic Republic of Congo.
The collective accuses the French conglomerate of systematically using corrupt practices to secure lucrative port concessions in at least five African nations before selling its African logistics operations for €5.7 billion in 2022 to Swiss-Italian shipping giant MSC.
"We are trying to condemn the Bolloré method, the practices and the system that was put in place to win elections and have interests and dividends by managing ports in Africa," said Jean-Jacques Lumumba, president of the RAF collective.
The complaint represents a new approach by targeting those allegedly paying bribes rather than the traditional focus on African officials receiving them.
"This complaint focuses on the corrupters, that is, those through whom money is injected into territories where it is later laundered," Paris-based lawyer Antoine Vey told the French news agency AFP.
Documented allegations
The complaint details allegations across multiple countries. In Cameroon, a national anti-corruption commission report cited in the complaint claims Bolloré Group withheld €60 million in fees and fines it should have paid to the state for its operations at Douala and Kribi ports.
In Ghana, Bolloré allegedly convinced then-president John Dramani Mahama in 2014 to award a port contract "secretly and without tender" despite 56 companies competing for the project.
The complaint claims this resulted in "a net loss of $4.1 billion for Ghana".
The 2003 no-bid award of the Abidjan container terminal in Côte d'Ivoire by then-president Laurent Gbagbo drew criticism, with the World Bank's country director describing it as "a contract that fundamentally violates principles of good governance".
Nearly 60 percent of African youth want to emigrate because of corruption
This is not the first time Bolloré's African operations have faced legal scrutiny.
French authorities began investigating the company in 2013 over suspicions it used its political consulting subsidiary, Euro RSCG (now Havas), to help presidents Faure Gnassingbé and Alpha Condé win their 2010 election campaigns in Togo and Guinea in exchange for port concessions.
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Bolloré settled part of the case in 2021 by paying a €12 million fine. However, in 2024, prosecutors requested a trial for Vincent Bolloré on charges of corruption and complicity in breach of trust.
"The group has already acknowledged that some of these activities took place. Is this the tip of the iceberg?" Vey asked.
Seeking restitution
The collective hopes the case will trigger the application of France's 2021 law, which allows for the reallocation of seized assets from corruption cases to fund development projects in affected countries.
"The goal is to target dirty money taken by the corrupter and return it to the African people who were harmed," Lumumba said.
"This money means fewer hospitals, fewer schools, fewer roads, fewer infrastructure projects. And it's a future that we're taking away from our young people."
Until its 2022 sale to Swiss-Italian shipping giant MSC, Bolloré Africa Logistics employed over 20,000 people across more than 20 African countries and operated 16 port concessions along with warehouses and transportation hubs.
