A Death Penalty for Whistleblowing

Gradi Koko Lobanga and Navy Malela Mawani were colleagues in the audit department at Cameroon’s Afriland First Bank CD. Based in a branch in Kinshasa (capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo), both men had worked their way up to prominent roles.

Gradi Koko’s father had also been a banker, and this instilled in him a great sense of duty. After five years at the bank, he was appointed to the role of Head of the unit’s Internal Audit Division (overseeing risk and accounting). Koko lived in the city with his wife and children. Later, he would reflect "I did it for my country. Yes, my life in Kinshasa was better. But this is not about me. It's about my profession. I needed to respect the role of banker."

Navy Malela was an IT specialist, and had been at Afriland Bank since 2009. He shared Koko’s values, and the pair had worked closely since Malela became the branch’s Comptroller (a senior role in internal auditing).

In 2018, Koko and Malela uncovered evidence of bank accounts held by sanctioned individuals and organisations. The scale of corruption, and the subsequent danger to the men and their families, led them to flee to Europe. With the help of the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (known as Pplaaf), Koko and Malela exposed Afriland Bank’s practices to the global media – and received a death sentence in absentia from the DR Congo.

A PwC audit shows that Afriland accounts in DR Congo soared fivefold in 2018, to a value of $279 million. With the surge in business, transaction fees also grew, and some of the bankers enjoyed bonuses at the end of the year (including Navy Malela). However, the leaked documents show that over one third of the deposits were connected to Dan Gertler, an Israeli billionaire with a history of corruption.

By facilitating corrupt management of the country’s natural resources, Mr Gertler allegedly caused the DR Congo to lose $1.36 million in tax revenue in the 2010s. He set up companies on behalf of former President Joseph Kabila, and acted as a middleman between the state and oil/mining corporations. As a result, Gertler was sanctioned by the US government, and cannot do business with any bank that deals in US dollars.

Koko and Malela discovered that Gertler and associates moved many of his company accounts from Gibraltar and the British Virgin Islands to Kinshasa after sanctions were imposed. They often made large cash deposits. Although the leaked documents cannot prove any criminal behaviour, Gertler was able to acquire new mining permits. He continues to receive millions from commodities giants, including Glencore, ERG and Sicomines. Gertler has said the claims about him are “entirely false” and has sued reporters for defamation.

Gradi Koko wrote to Patrick Kafindo, an executive at Afriland, to warn him of the national and international implications of servicing accounts linked to Dan Gertler. Koko was summoned to the bank director’s office: "He said that these persons were not random individuals. He said Kinshasa is a dangerous place, I might go into the street and get shot."

The threats soon turned violent. Koko fled Congo for Europe, and gained asylum in an undisclosed location in 2019. He brought his wife and children, as well as a trove of bank documents. DR Congo may be rich in natural resources, but over 72% of the population lives on less than $1.90 a day. Corrupt, wealthy individuals like Gertler are draining public services and exacerbating poverty.

Koko had heard of another Congolese banker, Jacques Lumumba, who had received support from Pplaaf in 2016. He became a whistleblower whilst working at another Kinshasa bank, and exposed millions of dollars of suspicious transactions involving President Kabila.

Lumumba had become a successful anti-corruption campaigner, and Koko was inspired to follow in his footsteps. He travelled to Paris and handed over the documents to Pplaaf. This included a more recent bundle of emails, which provided an insight into the bank’s inner workings and showed signs of serious corruption. These had been sent by Navy Malela, who was still working at the Kinshasa branch.

Malela fled DR Congo for Europe in Early 2020, when a joint report from Pplaaf and NGO Global Witness was published. This led to several further allegations of government officials and sanctioned groups who held accounts with Afriland. The list includes Zoe Kabila (the sister of the former President), Hezbollah (a Lebanese terrorist organisation) and shady business accounts.

One such company was Congo Aconde Sarl, which was incorporated by North Korean nationals. The company opened at least one dollar account with Afriland Bank. It had been economically active in the country, elevating concerns that the DPRK is using statue-building companies to gain favour in African countries and raise foreign exchange. Sanctions from the UN now prohibit Congo Aconde Sarl from supplying statues, and America has prohibited North Korea from using the US financial system.

The bank filed criminal complaints against Gradi Koko and Navy Malela. On 25th February 2021, lawyers representing Afriland announced that the men had been found guilty in absentia of “forgery,” “theft,” “private corruption,” “breach of professional secrecy,” and “criminal conspiracy.” When the trial concluded in September 2020, the court had sentenced both whistleblowers to death. Neither Koko, Malela or their lawyers had been made aware of the criminal proceedings and discovered the news on social media. This clearly violated the right to a fair trial under international law.

Pplaaf’s lawyer in Kinshasa has found no record of the judgement, and the organization suspects that it may be a falsity spread by Afriland and Dan Gertler.

Although the sentence is unlikely to be carried out anyway (there has been a moratorium on the death penalty in the DR Congo since 2003), Koko and Malela are unable to return home. Their location remains a closely guarded secret. Malela is still awaiting asylum, and he and his wife cannot seek work.

The men decided to forgo anonymity in early 2021 and have received global press coverage. This has caused concern that the US financial system could limit processing of dollar transactions for Congolese banks, due to the risk of violating sanctions.