French businessman Vincent Bolloré is set to appear before the Paris criminal court in December in the high-profile “African ports” case.
He faces charges of allegedly corrupting foreign public officials and aiding in the breach of trust, linked to the 2010 presidential elections in Togo and Guinea. Investigators claim that subsidiaries of the Bolloré group offered underpriced communication services to the campaigns of Faure Gnassingbé and Alpha Condé.
In return, the company is accused of securing control over two key ports: Lomé in Togo and Conakry in Guinea.
A coalition of non-governmental organizations from Togo, Guinea, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Cameroon, calling itself “Restitution for Africa,” alleges that the Bolloré Group, Vincent Bolloré, and his son illegally received benefits to operate the ports and then “laundered” money through the sale of its African logistics operations.
The inquiry was launched in 2013 and, in 2018, resulted in the indictment of Bolloré and two senior executives from his former subsidiary Euro RSCG, now known as Havas. In 2021, Bolloré admitted to the facts in a guilty-plea arrangement and agreed to pay a €375,000 fine, but the Paris court rejected the agreement, leading to the upcoming full trial.
Bolloré Group’s African ports and logistics operations, which the tycoon divested in 2022, employed over 20,000 people across 20 African countries, managing 16 ports as well as warehouses and transport hubs throughout the continent.
Cyrille Bolloré, Vincent’s youngest son, took over as head of Bolloré Africa Logistics in 2019, succeeding his father.