Billionaire’s Letters to Congo’s Kabila Were Sought by U.K. Fraud Watchdog – by Franz Wild (Bloomberg News – January 8, 2020)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

U.K. fraud prosecutors sought an Israeli billionaire’s correspondence with the former President of Democratic Republic of Congo Joseph Kabila as part of one of their largest bribery investigations, a lawyer for the Serious Fraud Office said at a London trial.

SFO attorney Jonathan Hall described the request at the start of the two-day trial against Anna Machkevitch, 37, who’s accused of failing to produce the documents concerning her mining magnate father, Alexander.

The case is an off-shoot from the SFO’s seven-year investigation into Eurasian Natural Resources Corp., a mining company owned by Machkevitch senior and two billionaire partners, collectively known as the trio.

Hall said the SFO is investigating how ENRC acquired valuable mineral assets in Congo and its order included correspondence from Machkevitch to the “President” and “Katumba,” references to Kabila and senior adviser Augstin Katumba Mwanke, who died in a 2012 airplane crash.

In November 2018, the SFO ordered Alexander Machkevitch’s notes as well as calendar and diary entries and other documents over a 10-year period from his daughter, who works at his personal office, according to Hall. She denies any wrongdoing.

For the rest of this article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-08/billionaire-s-letters-to-congo-s-kabila-were-sought-by-u-k-sfo