Congolese Register as Potential Victims in U.K. Probe
Congolese Demand Compensation in U.K. Corruption Investigation
A group of Democratic Republic of Congo citizens asked the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office to recognize them as victims in its investigation of alleged corruption by Kazakh mining company Eurasian Natural Resources Corp.
The 16 Congolese say they lost jobs, health care, and community development projects when a copper and cobalt tailings project was shut down near Kolwezi, southeastern Congo, in 2009, according to a statement by Rights and Accountability in Development, a U.K.-registered charity which mostly researches the impact of large-scale mining projects on African communities.
ENRC has been under investigation by the SFO since 2013 regarding its acquisition of mining assets, including several projects in Congo. Although the company acquired the mining project in 2010 -- after it was already shut down -- RAID said the Congolese could still be considered victims in the SFO investigation.
The SFO probe is ongoing and neither ENRC nor any of its employees have been charged. ENRC, which denies any wrongdoing, only acquired the project a year after the previous owners lost it and the company “made no cash payments” during the purchase of the mine, RAID said, citing the company’s owner. ENRC’s mines are now operated by its parent company, Eurasian Resources Group. A spokesman for ENRC didn’t comment when contacted by email.
London-based RAID and a Congolese organization, African Resources Watch, helped organize the group of potential victims. Rights and Accountability in Development said in the statement on Tuesday that they had identified more than 32,000 Congolese who were negatively impacted by the project’s closing.
The Congolese could potentially qualify as victims under the U.K.’s Compensation Principles, which require law enforcement agencies to identify overseas victims in corruption probes and seek compensation for them if a case proceeds, RAID said.
In an email on Wednesday, an SFO spokeswoman said the fraud office would not comment on an ongoing investigation. ENRC sued the U.K. agency last year, claiming it colluded with the firm’s own lawyers to manufacture grounds for a probe -- an allegation both parties deny.
To contact the reporters on this story: Michael J. Kavanagh in Kinshasa at mkavanagh9@bloomberg.net;Franz Wild in London at fwild@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: John McCorry at jmccorry@bloomberg.net, Hilton Shone
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