The son of Republic of Congo’s President Denis Sassou-Nguesso seemingly stole over $50 million from the Congolese treasury by setting up a complex and opaque corporate structure in multiple countries...Six different European countries, the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and the American state of Delaware were all involved in an apparent money laundering scheme... 

Denis Christel Sassou-Nguesso...is an elected member of the Congolese parliament and former deputy director of the state-owned oil company Société nationale des pétroles du Congo (SNPC)...due to corruption and mismanagement, the country consistently performs badly in development indices such as the Human Development Index and the Corruption Perceptions Index...a third of Congo’s population lives below the poverty line and citizens go months without wages, pensions and medicine...

Veiga was also a business intermediary for Brazilian company Asperbras in Congo, responsible for securing public works contracts with the Congolese government...Asperbras charged inflated fees for some contracts....Asperbras completely refuted any claim of over-priced contracts and irregularities in the Congolese public procurement process...[refers to Gabox)...

In response to written questions sent by Global Witness, Asperbras said it did not know anything about deals closed by Veiga or his companies, let alone any financial transactions carried out by Veiga on behalf of any “Politically Exposed Person” (PEP) in Congo...

Asperbras declined to comment in further detail in light of the ongoing Portuguese investigation into Veiga and the deals he has been involved with in Congo. The company stressed that none of its employees have been charged in relation to that investigation so far.