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Congolese Elections Chief Hires U.S. Law Firm to Fight Sanctions

Congolese Elections Chief Hires U.S. Law Firm to Fight Sanctions

(Bloomberg) -- The head of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s electoral body hired a Washington-based law firm to help overturn U.S. sanctions imposed on him after last year’s disputed presidential election.

The action comes after Congo’s Independent National Electoral Commission criticized the U.S. government for handing down the penalties even after the Trump administration welcomed the outcome of the vote. Opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi won the election, marking the first transfer of power by the ballot box in the cobalt-rich central African nation since independence in 1960.

Commission President Corneille Nangaa and two other officials are being represented by Ferrari & Associates PC, founder Erich Ferrari said by phone. The law firm, which specializes in challenging U.S. sanctions, is “pursuing a reconsideration of their designation before the Treasury,” he said.

The Treasury froze assets within U.S. jurisdiction belonging to Nangaa, his vice president Norbert Basengezi and senior adviser Marcellin Basengezi, according to a March 21 order. It prohibited Americans from transacting with them because of their alleged “persistent corruption” and delaying an election that originally had been scheduled for late 2016.

‘Personal Enrichment’

The alleged graft included inflating a contract to purchase electronic-voting machines by as much as $100 million “with the intent to use surplus funds for personal enrichment, bribes and campaign costs to fund the election campaign” of a candidate favored by former President Joseph Kabila, the Treasury said.

Voting data leaked from the electoral commission and an observation mission conducted by Congo’s Catholic bishops shows rival opposition leader Martin Fayulu easily obtained the most votes in the election, according to New York University’s Congo Research Group. The African Union said in January there were “serious doubts” about the accuracy of the official results.

While the U.S. State Department on Jan. 16 urged the commission to ensure the election results “reflect the will of the Congolese people,” a week later, it welcomed the Constitutional Court’s certification of Tshisekedi’s victory.

The electoral commission’s board criticized as a “contradiction” the U.S. stance of supporting Tshisekedi while sanctioning those who oversaw his electoral victory. The Treasury’s decision is based on “unverifiable allegations,” the commission said in a statement in April.

The U.S. Treasury didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment.

Tshisekedi visited the U.S. capital in April, when Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy greeted him as “the first truly democratically elected president of Congo.”

To contact the reporter on this story: William Clowes in Kinshasa at wclowes@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: John McCorry at jmccorry@bloomberg.net, Paul Richardson, Pauline Bax

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