The 53-year-old businessman was spending a fortune from Congolese oil, especially in France. Usually in cash, and without forgetting to sprinkle relatives and dignitaries of the Sassou-Nguesso regime.

Libération reveals the mechanisms of what could be one of the main channels for diverting Congolese oil revenues, from Paris to Brazzaville, Switzerland and Monaco. In question, the company Orion Oil and its boss Lucien Ebata, close to President Denis Sassou-Nguesso and with multiple relations with French economic and political personalities.

“Which car did you get?” On the phone, Lucien Ebata seems lost on 6 December 2016, according to a conversation intercepted by customs investigators. The dealer, based in Paris, laughs and says, “Ben, the one you ordered from us.” The boss of the Orion group no longer remembers which vehicle it is. This is not a used city car, but a white Bentley convertible. The seller reminds in the conversation that there is a balance of 274,435 euros to pay. A straw. The businessman may have a bad memory because he has many vehicles in France at the time: two Land Rover breaks, two Porsche Cayenne, a Bentley Continental, a Mercedes E-Class and a Fiat 500. There’s plenty to lose.

Is Lucien Ebata’s fortune in millions or billions of euros? Mystery. The 53-year-old Canadian-Congolese is not in the ultrarich rankings that Forbes magazine is used to publishing, of which he has a franchise for francophone Africa. In front of an investigating judge, on 20 December 2021, Lucien Ebata assures that his «annual revenues» are between 1 and 5 million euros. These figures seem to be underestimated in light of his delusional lifestyle, which is very well documented in the judicial investigation that has brought him under investigation in France. This is not to say that Lucien Ebata leads the great life, financed with cash which the investigators think comes from an elaborate system of embezzlement of public funds in Congo-Brazzaville. A sophisticated installation that benefits the dignitaries of the regime of Denis Sassou-Nguesso, but also Ebata himself.

When questioned in police custody in October 2021 about possible money laundering, the businessman said, “I refute this analysis.” Contacted by Libération, Lucien Ebata, presumed innocent, replied in the voice of his lawyer, Me Antoine Vey: We deplore the violation of secrecy […]. This disclosure is causing Mr. Ebata and his group significant reputational harm.”

A round addition of 5,594 euros
In Paris, one of Orion’s boss’s favorite shops is the Zilli clothing store, near the Champs-Elysées. Invoices attest that more than €235,000 was spent in 2011 and 2012 – in cash. On 8 December 2011, he made a raid on the shelves, making a single visit of 38,000 euros to buy costumes, shirts, pants and a pair of alligator shoes for 3,600 euros.

For his Parisian meals, Lucien Ebata enjoys the cuisine of the Laurent, a luxury restaurant in the 8th arrondissement. On 31 May 2012, in the company of ten guests, he made it out with a plump 5,594 euro bill, paid in cash. The menu is of the finest: foie gras, langoustines, turbot sections, lobsters, pigtails, all sprinkled with a castle of Yquem 1961 and a Mouton Rothschild at 1 150 euros each.

In Paris, where his wife and children live, Orion’s boss does not own real estate. It is owned in other countries, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Spain, South Africa… This wealth amounts to several million euros, according to traces of banking transactions found by investigators. In Paris, he lived for a long time on rue Beaujon, near the Arc de Triomphe, for a monthly rent of 5,500 euros. The family then moved to Avenue Marceau, near the Champs-Elysées. During the search of his home in May 2017, the judicial customs discovered that the businessman particularly liked luxury watches. They found nine, including Rolex, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Chopard and Dior. They were estimated by an expert who established a range of 38,200 to 56,850 euros for the whole.

A hotel bill of 493,000 euros
To travel, Lucien Ebata uses private planes in a frantic way. In a note dated 22 June 2017, Tracfin, Bercy’s financial intelligence service, notes that Jet Monde has invoiced the various companies of the businessman for nearly 7 million euros of services in the previous three years. Lucien Ebata does not enjoy this extravagant life alone: he has a large circle of relatives, friends and collaborators, as well as a network of Congolese officials, relations to cherish for the preservation of his business and his status. A whole small world that appreciates Parisian palaces. French investigators have collected from the Peninsula, the businessman’s favorite hotel, huge bills in his name or those of his closest. Published on 14 July 2017 after the one and a half month occupancy of two rooms – including the 111, one of the most expensive suites – one of them amounts to 493,000 euros.
One of Orion’s boss’s most recurring and expensive guests is certainly former Congo Finance Minister Calixte Nganongo. Between 2016 and 2018, while he was a member of the government, he was entitled to sixty nights of all expenses paid in the most beautiful establishments, for a total of 278,000 euros. This central figure of the Brazzaville regime, former leader of the National Oil Society of Congo, has all the attentions of Ebata. Shortly after Nganongo was appointed to the government in May 2016, the businessman ordered 60,500 euros worth of leather goods and footwear from him in a boutique on the Champs-Elysées. For the occasion, the saleswoman was sent to Brazzaville to take the size of the minister. Was it a gesture intended to secure the good graces of the great fundraiser? “It is possible that when Mr. Nganongo [became] Minister of Finance, he approached me for the Board.

Source : Libération