CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
|
Cameroon |
CORRUPTION
Thousands of Cameroonians have, in recent years, fallen victims to what appears to be a major financial scam
Four years ago, a fake financial house started operating in Cameroon. This so-called bank has now disappeared with over 5 billion CFA francs invested by some five thousand Cameroonians. When the bank in question, Leadership Academy S.A., installed itself in Cameroon, it described it’s mission as «to train top-level businessmen in management and international finance»; to act as a financial intermediary between Cameroonian businessmen and a Swiss bank (said to be called Millennium Private Banking); to reduce poverty and unemployment in Cameroon. It’s senior directors were Ndouma Jean Rene Fils and Bouloulna Djonkissam, both Cameroonians but trained in Germany. It organised seminars and conferences and also offered gifts to some hospitals around the country.
Attracted by the bank’s interesting financial proposals, many Cameroonians saw this as an opportunity to open bank accounts in Switzerland, and between October 1998 and October 2000, nearly 5 billion CFA francs were collected from Cameroonians. In Cameroon, financial transactions of this nature are controlled by the government, so Leadership Academy, to avoid being caught in this trap, applied to the Ministry of Ec-onomy and Finance (MINEFI) for the appropriate authorization. After carefully studying the bank’s file, the Ministry transmitted the application to the Banking Commission of Central Africa (COBAC) for its comments. This central financing mission of all banks in the Central Africa region which use the CFA franc as its common currency, rejected the application. Because the so-called Millennium Private Banking was described as being registered in Switzerland, it was thus technically a «foreign bank», and so Cameroonians were unable to have savings accounts with this particular bank. Cameroon’s financial law prohibits its citizens from saving money in foreign banks. This can only be done through a local financial house authorised to make money transfers abroad. Such authorization must be obtained from MINEFI. So this is where Leadership Academy, duly established in Cameroon, saw its chance!
During the months of August and October 2000, the MINEFI made it known that it was banning Leadership Academy’s activities, and all the legalised financial houses in Cameroon were warned to stop dealing with Leadership Academy.
But, strange to relate, Leadership Academy said it could not inform Millennium Private Banking of the government’s decision. Noting that Leadership Academy and Millennium Private Banking were continuing to operate illegally after the ban, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Mr. Edouad Akame Mfoumou, called on Cameroonians to respect his decision.
This led to a «misunderstanding» between the two senior managers of Leadership Academy, namely Merrs Ndouma Jean Rene Fils and Boulouna Djonkissam. They accused each other of financial mismanagement and on 26 August 2000, Bouloulna Djonkissam was suspended from signing any further documents on behalf of Leadership Academy. He was finally dismissed on 6 September 2000.
Legal action
So what did Bouloulna Djonkissam do? He took legal action against Leadership Academy, claiming heavy damages for wrongful dismissal. On 13 October 2000, the president of the Court of First Instance in Yaounde, Mr. Yap Abdou, appointed the former president of Cameroon’s Bar Council, Lawyer Akere Muna, to act as temporary administrator of Leadership Academy. Lawyer Akere’s mission was to call a meeting which included Ndouma Jean Rene Fils and Bouloulna Djonkissam, in order to sort out the financial crisis involving the life-savings of thousands of Cameroonians. During the stormy meeting, one of its financial participants, a financial expert called Mr. Eba Evina, was appointed to audit the bank and to report back.
But Ndouma Jean Rene Fils was not satisfied with the report and appealed for legal redress. After a series of hearings and adjournments, the case was finally heard in court on 8 March 2001 in Yaounde by three magistrates.
While these hearings were going on in Yaounde, two former customers of Leadership Academy in Douala, took the bank to court claiming huge sums of money and calling for a judicial liquidation of the bank. To this effect, a verdict was given by Mrs Asu Agbor Lucy of the Douala Court of First Instance on 15 March 2001. In the same judgement, Lawyer Akere Muna and Mr. Dieudonne were appointed as official liquidators of the bank, while Mr. Emile Essombe was assigned to supervise the liquidation exercise.
Ndouma Jean Rene Fils described the decision as «farcical» and appealed against it. Another hearing then took place in Douala.
Leadership Academy has imposing offices in Yaounde, a presence in the towns of Bamenda (north West Province), Douala (Littoral Province), Bafoussam (Western Province) Garoua (Northern Province) and Bertoua (East province). By 18 March 2000, when the bank stopped operating, nearly 5 billion CFA francs had been gathered from Cameroonians in the form of bank savings; 2,178 employment opportunities had been created; and there were over 5,000 customers and 380 shareholders.
Cameroonians are now asking the following questions: If the transfer of money in Cameroon is illegal, how did Leadership Academy succeed in transfering more than 5 billion CFA francs with no trace of this transaction being registered with the Ministry of Finances? In which foreign bank were these sums transferred, because there seems to be no trace of a Millennium Private Banking? Were authentic bank accounts really set up for Leadership Academy’s investors? If not, from where would Cameroonian investors have started to withdraw their savings?
ENGLISH CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
PeaceLink 2002 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement