According to revelations from Parisian , the ex-Miss France Sonia Rolland was indicted on Monday May 30, 2022 for “concealment of embezzlement of public funds”, “corruption” and “misuse of corporate assets”. This Wednesday, June 1, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the information toAFP.
Our colleagues explain that the one who is now an actress became the owner in 2003 of an apartment in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. It would be a gift from former Gabonese President Omar Bongo, who died in 2009.
She had been heard in January as a free suspect
As part of this case, Sonia Rolland was heard in 2021 under the free suspect regime at the Central Office for the Suppression of Serious Financial Crime (OCRGDF).
She had explained this gift she had received in 2003 from the Bongo couple, an apartment worth €800,000, under the regime of a civil real estate company (SCI).
According Release , she told investigators that in 2001 she met Édith Bongo, the wife of the former Gabonese president, when she was sponsoring Miss competitions in Africa. In 2002, Edith Bongo allegedly told her that she would give her a gift to thank her for the image she conveyed for Africa.
His lawyer disputes any offense
What does the investigating judge in charge of the case accuse him of today? “She should have known of the fraudulent mode of acquisition, according to the prosecution” as written The Parisian Tuesday, May 31, 2022.
« We must beware of judging with today’s knowledge of the facts of 2003, reacted his lawyer Me Charles Morel in the columns of the Ile-de-France newspaper. My client was 22 years old, she was coming out of a period where she was projected into a universe of which she knew nothing. She explained in detail about the conditions for obtaining this gift that she did not request. She admits to having been naive, but disputes any violation. »
After the indictment of the bank BNP Paribas a year ago, this is a new turning point in the case relating to the luxurious real estate acquired in France by the family of the late President Omar Bongo. The so-called “ill-gotten gains” affair began after a complaint filed in 2008 by the NGO Transparency International.
Four children of Omar Bongo indicted
French justice has been investigating since 2010 the considerable heritage amassed in France by Omar Bongo and other African heads of state. In April 2016, real estate in Paris and Nice, on the French Riviera, belonging to the family of Gabonese President Ali Bongo – son of Omar Bongo, who succeeded his father as leader of the country in 2009 – was seized. .
In the capital and on the French Riviera, the Bongo clan has acquired twelve properties “for an amount of nearly 32 million euros” from the 1990s, identify the investigators.
Among this heritage: two private mansions rue Dosnes and rue de la Baume in the upscale 8th and 16th arrondissements of Paris (acquired for the equivalent of 3.5 million euros in 1997 and 18 million euros in 2007), as well than the Villa Saint-Ange in Nice (1.75 million euros in 1999).
Between March 25 and April 5, four of Omar Bongo’s 54 children were indicted. All deny having been aware of the fraudulent nature of the family fortune.