it is July 1994 a French financial Market regulator had just sent a troubling report to the par public Prosecutors office regarding a shady investment made by one of France's Big Oil Company and a prominent French Bank in supporting this failing texile group run by a man with powerful connections this report raised concerns about the conditions under which these Investments were made possibly by involving potential Financial misconduct soon enough what started as a simple suspicion began to unravel something much bigger as forward to August 18 1994 this suspicion led the Parry prosecutor to launch a former
judicial investigation for quote abuse of social property led by this influential French judge known for her work on financial and corporate corruption cases Eva joli this investigation soon widened as investigators found evidence of the company's Shady dealings in Spain Germany and most interestingly the African continent where they use cash and influence to secure lucrative oil deals from some African leaders often at the expense of their country the investigation would go on for more than 8 years generating more than 45,000 pages of documents as investigators uncovered what would be known as one of the biggest fraud
inquiries in Europe since since the second world war but the question is what role did Africa play in this huge fraud how did this French company come to hold such a big influence in Africa and who were the people involved in this candal this is the story of Elf aquan one of the most corrupt oil cabals in the world in recent weeks a lot of people have reached out to me to learn how to express or communicate their ideas in the form of f length videos like I do you know the kind you've always wanted
to create the kind you'd be excited to share within your peers in the most seamless intuitive way possible irrespective of your skill level now invid ai enables you to do just that all you have to do is type in the idea you want to create a video about it's pretty gamechanging you can even edit whatever you like using simple text command like add my voice how cool is that now unlike traditional video tools with steep learning CES that only solve parts of your video creation process invid is the creative partner that you have always wanted
it removes all friction and puts you in the director's seat letting you focus entirely on your vision and your idea while invid AI does all the heavy lifting you can try invid AI for free today this will save you hundreds of dollars that you would otherwise spend on editing animating and other production costs use the link in the description box below to start bringing your ideas to life today thank you inid for sponsoring this video now let's jump right back into our story the year is 1963 France determined to secure its energy Independence founded elf
as a state run Oil Company under former president Charles de but as years passed by elf became much more than just a simple Oil Company it turned into a secret weapon for French politics especially in Africa having established this company France was soon confronted with one major problem its Reliance on Algeria for oil was unsustainable especially because the African country had gained independence in 1962 and nationalized its oil soon enough elf discovered Gabon and they started working there even though Gabon was already independent in 1960 it would later become a key player for oil policy
in France you see France had a complicated relationship with his old African colonies after they became independent even though these countries were officially free on paper France still wanted their valuable resources like oil gas uranium and gold at the same time these African countries needed investments from France this interdependence created a system called France Afric a secret network of political and economic connections that allowed France to maintain control over its foral colonies now at the center of this secret Network were two influential men Pier Gart and Jack forat Pier Gul the first Chief of Elf
was instrumental in transforming this oil company into more than just a business entity under his leadership e became a key financial instrument for covert French activities particularly in Africa gont envisioned the company as a vehicle to support France's strategic interest creating a hidden network of funding for operations that went far beyond oil now working closely with Gart was Jack fat he was President Charles de G's Chief advisor on African Affairs fart was the architect of what came to be known as France arri is system that sought to maintain French dominance over its former African colonies
through political economic and sometimes military means forat operated behind the scenes leveraging El's vast resources to strengthen pro- French regimes while undermining opposition movements in the process his strategies ensured that African leaders remained indebted to France and this was often at the cost of good governance and transparency in their countries in other words the French didn't care if African countries were doing well or not so long as French interests were protected on the continent this network of influence extended into everything from oil concessions to diplomatic dealings creating a tightly controlled system of dependency Africa you
see was the crown jeel of elves operations this company controlled vast oil resources in gaban Congo Angola and Beyond but elf was not just extracting o it was also funding dictatorship supporting regimes and influencing local politics to benefit France for years elf paid Millions up to1 15 million every year for various African leaders these payments had two perposes first they ensured that elf and not American or British companies would through the oil operations in these countries and secondly the money kept the African leaders loyal to France even after the countries officially gained independence but how
was this money moved and who were those that benefited from this operation as the investigation continued it became obvious that elf aquan had been running a secret fund called elf an for years this was no ordinary slush fund they were moving millions of dollars into hidden accounts managed by company Executives this money was then used to pay bribes support political campaigns and make the top Executives richer according to investigations in countries like Gabon Congo brazaville Angola elf used bribes and secret payments to make sure French companies got the best contracts Gabon a small country in
central Africa became a symbol of he's operation and I'm going to show you how this is Omar Bongo gabon's longtime president he rote the country for over three decades that is 30 years plus with strong backing from France for years elf poured money into Bongo regime financing his luxurious lifestyle and helping him to stay in power for a very long time but his grip on power was sleeping gradually the Turning Point came when one of his political Rivals rambi died under suspicious circumstances this event triggered widespread anger sparking protest and unrest in the country the
French Oil Company elf deeply tied to gabon's oil industry and seen as a symbol of foreign exploitation became a target of this public outrage Riot soon stormed one of his facilities and chaos and SE Lial the capital was placed under curfew the PT was set Ablaze and oil production immediately came to a halt in the midst of all this crisis LC's CEO made the drastic decision to shut down his operations in the country as the situation worsened France began reconsidering his support for Bongo exploring other possibilities like backing one of his opponents instead he was
furious at the Betrayal Bongo pushed back at France in one of the discussions he said demonstrations don't mean we've lost control he declared in a press release saying quote order will be restored at any cost desperate to hold on to power Bongo turned the tables on France he warned parie that if elf didn't reopen his business he would invite American companies to take over gabon's resources funny enough the threat worked and France soon reopened elf's operation and even sent in its military to help Bongo take control of the country again with order restored the alliance
between Bongo and El grew stronger the company's financial support helped stabilize his regime keeping him in power from 1967 until his death in 2009 in return elf enjoyed near total dominance over gabon's lucrative oil industry enjoying a mutually beneficial and controversial Arrangement this has been France's playbook in Africa and while looking into the company's activities investigators discovered that elf paid Bongo as much as50 million annually often routed through Swiss bank accounts in exchange for granting Health Access to gabon's lucrative oil resources this Arrangement made Gabon a Cornerstone of France afri while the country suffer and
wow in poverty but but this corruption extended far beyond Gabon one former elf executive leel prant revealed in the investigation how in 1989 president Franco metrand one of the Socialist Party Guys arranged that the money be strategically split between Francis left and rightwing parties to keep everyone happy the system was far too valuable and beneficial to the ruling class for anyone to dismantle and if we move across the map to Congo a similar story played out here elf played a major role in the Congo's oil industry starting in 1972 with the country's first offshore oil
rig however its operations became highly controversial due to accusations of corruption involving Congo's longtime leader Denise suo ueso in the late 1970s Congo brazaville was under the control of this guy president Dennis sasoo a leader from from the country's Northern minority by the early 1990s however wings of change were blowing across Africa and cono was no exception inspired by a wave of reforms on the continent the country adopted a new Constitution that ended its Marxist system and introduced multi-party democracy as Congo prepared for its first free election sas's chances of winning were very slim being
from an ethnic minority in the nor he faced significant challenges in the country where the majority of Voters were from the southern region yet saso had powerful allies the French Oil Company elf for example you see for years he had worked closely with this company and its leaders so 's directors came up with a plan they backed another guy called Pasar LBA a southern politician and a former Minister who had been out of politics for years years to he liuba seemed easy to control and his candidacy would attract sou supports and this will help split
support for other Rivals behind the scenes elf funded LBA campaign with the expectation that once elected into office LBA would secretly cooperate with sasoo keeping El's interest intact in the process well LBA won the election but things didn't go as elf had planned once in office he broke his agreement with sasoo and focused on strengthening his own base he strengthened his party won a legislative election and sought ways to fund his government and political Ambitions but a Time came when he needed money and he ran to elf with a proposal for future oil deliveries in
exchange for financial support but elf turned him down they were angry at lar for betraying saso and refused to help but this guy was desperate so leuba turned to 's rival the American Oil Company ogy he reportedly signed a secret deal with oy granting them a share of Congo's oil production in exchange for $150 million These funds helped isuba win the legislative elections but his action ignited a fierce rivalry with sauo who still had El's backing tension quickly grew in the country and this turned into armed conflict dragging the country into a series of brutal
civil wars that lasted from 1993 to 1997 but saso had other powerful allies Here Comes Angola's president Jose uo dos Santos who had also benefited from Elf support in his own country with financial backing from Elf dos Santos maintained his grip on power in Angola and after stabilizing his country he sent his army to help sasu uo with the might of the angulas military sasu ueso recaptured the capital in 1997 reclaiming the presidency for himself in a country devastated by War the investigation further uncovered that a lot of the money that went through elf was
used to support sas's political regime this included funding military operations during unstable times like the congol Civil Wars these payments kept Sesto loyal to France and protected El's interest in Congo brazille however while the politicians got richer the budget faced deficits and elf was asked to lend the country money to fix the situation the company agreed however they charged higher interest rates which only made Congo's problems worse in the long run these loans were structured so that Congo had to repay them with oil but the oil was undervalued as a result multinational companies like he
profited immensely while Congo sank deeper into debt elf paid commissions which they called op operations these commissions were paid to foreign officials through midan as part of France's foreign policy African presidents politicians and intermediaries not only received commissions but also got extra payments called abonnements or subscriptions elf set aside between 20 and 60 cents per barrel for the African heads of state the indictment found that Lenin based trust in El's name had transferred this abonament into offsh accounts held by conges leaders it claimed that these accounts were used to transfer about 64.8 million into the
pockets of conges decision makers between 1989 and 1992 the politicians kept taking out more loans and each loan came with personal packs for a one $100 million loan $3 million would be set aside as syndication rights the African heads of state o of Finance ministers or your advisors would usually keep about $700,000 from this amount the rest went into F controlled offshore accounts in Switzerland and lanstein at the end of the day saso denied involvement in this Scandal and no substantial legal actions were ever taken against him due to the jurisdictional and political challenges but
all of these monies did not just appear in the hands of these people someone was pulling the strings behind the scenes question is who at the H of this Shady Empire was this man L LL prent who served as L CEO from 1989 to 1993 he was appointed by former president Franco emrand after leading the state raway ncf and under his watch the company's secret slush fund grew larger and his network of bribes and kickbacks became even more elaborate he claimed that the president knew of untolerated such deals investigators revealed that he embezzled 16.2 million
for his personal expenses placed his wife Fatima bed in a leading position in the company and after 18 months of marriage he sealed for divorce and had elf pay her an enormous 18 million Frank as divorce settlement to her Swiss bank account at the end of the investigation he was convicted of embezzling €80 million from slush funds during his four years in charge he was sentenced to 5 years in prison and fined €375,000 just a slap in the rest but if lluk prant was the face of Elf Andre taro was his shadow popularly known as
monu Africa tarello was elf's Point man on the African continent he served as elf aquatan top African Affairs manager from the late 1970s until his arrest in the 1990s for embezzlement as elf's African Affairs manager he became a key figure in France's dealings with the continent talo cultivated close ties with African leaders including including gabon's president Omar Bongo and Angola's Eduardo dos Santos treating elf like his personal property the investigation also exposed his use of bank accounts maintained by elf for bribing African governments including the heads of state of Angola Cameroon the Republic of Congo
and Gabon investigations also revealed that talo paid millions in bribes to African governments through secret accounts with names like tomato salad Lango KO that is the name of his wife or centuri stashed in tax Heavens around the world including Panama Switzerland and Lenin and they accused him of stealing at least $50 million tarello admitted to overing a slush fund that paid gabon's president Bongo up to $30 million annually in the year 2000 he was sentenced to 4 years in prison and finded €2 million for misusing funds but guess what what his argument was he said
bribery wasn't misused and that it was part of the business another important character in this Bri Scandal is afred s who was 's director of general affairs from 1989 to 1993 managing billions of Franks in a black box office to pay bribes secure contracts and enrich himself after fleeing authorities for 4 years he was finally captured in the Philippines in 2001 and extr Ed to France via Germany however in a dramatic twist s swallowed the chip from his mobile phone before his arrest to hide evidence Seven's operations were breathtaken in scale he maintained secret accounts
in tax Heavens like Switzerland Lenin Monaco lenberg Austria and the Virgin Islands and personally carried sweet cases of cash all around the world he reportedly misappropriated 100 7 million e using the money to purchase a villa in iiza a chatow in France and luxury items like art and jewelry he was later sentenced to 5 years in prison and fined €1 million e together this men made elf a symbol of greed and Corruption making themselves Rich while damaging the company and its reputation as well as destroying the economies of these African countries by the late 1990s
years of secretive dealings lavish Lifestyles and bring misuse of funds had finally caught up with the company's top Executives after eight long years of investigators uncovering the truth and Gathering evidence in 2002 a massive trial began that would Shake France to his core the high court in Paris tried 37 former officials and Associates of Elf for ersing hundreds of millions of Frank between 198 89 and 1993 the trial revealed a network of corruption spanning continents from Europe Central America and Africa where the company served as a shadowy tool of French foreign policy the tri uncovered
a vast operation that siphoned 350 million E from elf's funds the stolen Millions financed not only the executives extravagant Lifestyles but also illegal payments to African leaders and their families though elf had already been absorbed by total finina in 2000 which was later rebranded to Total e in 201 2003 the scandal's legacy cast a long Shadow over France's political and corporate Elite African leaders were not formally indicted in the elf Scandal despite their involvement and being heavily implicated during the trial but this whole elf Affair was not just about money it exposed how it state-owned
Corporation became a vehicle for corruption intertwining business and politics on a global scale it also reveals just how far the global n is willing to go to ensure Africa remains in shackles the big question however is have African leaders learned anything at all or is it still business as usual
