The United States Department of Justice has asked a judge for permission to seize an apartment at the magnificent Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York City as part of a corruption probe into the president of Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso.
Denis Sassou Nguesso is accused of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars from his country’s treasury.
In a forfeiture complaint filed in court for the Southern District of New York Friday, the DOJ claimed an apartment at Trump Tower bought for the Congolese president’s daughter is a candidate to be seized by the federal government.
The DoJ claimed further that the apartment was allegedly used to launder funds stolen from the francophone African country.
The property, unit 32G, was purchased for Claudia Sassou Nguesso, the complaint alleges, who has also served as her father’s head of communications and a member of parliament in Congo.
Unit 32G is a two bedroom, 1,767-square-foot home, according to the New York Times, and was purchased for $7.1 million in 2014, the filing shows, with an additional $245,000 in fees and maintenance payments made between 2018 and 2022.
That money, court documents allege, was part of an embezzlement scheme that saw a company called Sebrit Limited, later found to be owned by Claudia Sassou Nguesso, receive $19.5 million through a Congolese government contract, according to Forbes.
The contract said Sebrit performed geophysical surveying on behalf of a Brazilian construction conglomerate called the Asperbras Group, but Sebrit was founded as an “investment and financial services” firm with no mention of any such activity, according to the forfeiture filing.
The apartment, which the DOJ says was bought for the “apparent personal enrichment” of Claudia Sassou Nguesso, has remained empty since it was purchased; the Trump Organization is not accused of wrongdoing in the sale, which was organized through a shell-company and acquired from a third party.
Congolese president Denis Sassou Nguesso has held the top office in the country for all but five years since 1979. Throughout that time, news agencies have accused Nguesso of corruption, specifically the theft or embezzlement of hundreds of millions of dollars from the Congo’s treasury. His children have also been accused of being involved in the corruption, according to multiple reports, including an alleged $50 million theft by his son, Denis-Christel Sassou Nguesso, which also allegedly involved government contract work done for the Asperbras Group. In 2022, the French government seized a house in the suburbs of Paris that belonged to the president’s son, citing an investigation into financial crimes. News of Claudia Sassou Nguesso’s purchase of the Trump apartment first broke in 2019, Forbes reported.
News reports of corruption within the Congolese government have often reported the involvement of a man named Jose Veiga, who the DOJ complaint describes as an intermediary between the Asperbras Group and the Nguesso family. Veiga is accused of arranging the purchase of the Trump Tower apartment and continuing to manage it years later. Veiga has been under investigation for corruption for years, according to the Guardian. He was briefly arrested and held in 2016 in connection with money laundering and corruption, but has since been released and denied all allegations against him. Veiga is reportedly known as the “Portuguese wizard” of the Congolese president.
$5 million. That’s how much Forbes’ estimates Donald Trump’s personal stake in the Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York to be worth. He owns retail and garage space in the building, as well as a condo. Trump’s management and licensing business, valued at $59 million, manages the hotel.
