African civil society groups have filed a legal complaint in France against billionaire Vincent Bolloré, his son Cyrille, and the Bolloré Group, accusing them of money laundering and concealing alleged ill-gotten gains from African port operations.

The complaint, submitted on Tuesday to the National Financial Prosecutor's Office in Paris, comes from "Restitution pour l'Afrique" (RAF), a coalition of 11 NGOs from six African nations: Togo, Guinea, Cameroon, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, reports RFI.

The NGOs allege the French conglomerate systematically employed corrupt practices to secure lucrative port concessions in at least five African countries before selling its logistics operations in 2022 to Swiss-Italian shipping giant MSC for €5.7bn.

"We are trying to condemn the Bolloré method, the practices and the system that was put in place to win elections and have interests and dividends by managing ports in Africa," RFI quoted Jean-Jacques Lumumba, president of the RAF collective, as saying.

Unlike traditional corruption cases, which often target African officials accepting bribes, this legal action focuses on those allegedly making illicit payments.

"This complaint focuses on the corrupters, that is, those through whom money is injected into territories where it is later laundered," Paris-based lawyer Antoine Vey told AFP news agency.

The complaint details allegations across multiple African nations:

* In Cameroon, a national anti-corruption commission report claims Bolloré Group withheld €60 million in fees and fines owed to the state for its port operations in Douala and Kribi.
* In Ghana, Bolloré allegedly convinced then-president John Dramani Mahama in 2014 to award a port contract "secretly and without tender" despite 56 companies competing for the project. The complaint claims this resulted in "a net loss of $4.1bn for Ghana".
* In Côte d'Ivoire, the 2003 no-bid award of the Abidjan container terminal under then-president Laurent Gbagbo drew criticism, with the World Bank's country director describing it as "a contract that fundamentally violates principles of good governance".

History of legal troubles

Bolloré's African operations have previously faced legal scrutiny. French authorities launched an investigation in 2013 over suspicions the company used its political consulting subsidiary, Euro RSCG (now Havas), to assist presidents Faure Gnassingbé (Togo) and Alpha Condé (Guinea) in winning their 2010 election campaigns in exchange for port concessions.

The group settled part of the case in 2021 by paying a €12mn fine. However, in 2024, prosecutors sought a trial for Vincent Bolloré on charges of corruption and complicity in breach of trust.

"The group has already acknowledged that some of these activities took place. Is this the tip of the iceberg?" Vey asked.

The complainants hope the case will lead to the enforcement of a 2021 French law allowing for seized assets from corruption cases to be redirected towards development projects in affected countries.

"The goal is to target dirty money taken by the corrupter and return it to the African people who were harmed," Lumumba said, as quoted by RFI. "This money means fewer hospitals, fewer schools, fewer roads, fewer infrastructure projects. And it's a future that we're taking away from our young people."

Until its sale to MSC in 2022, Bolloré Africa Logistics employed more than 20,000 people across over 20 African countries, operating 16 port concessions along with warehouses and transportation hubs.