Today, Friday 5 February at 08:30 CET, WikiLeaks releases a collection of documents that open up a corrupt multi-billion dollar war by Western and Chinese companies grab uranium and other mining rights in the Central African Republic (CAR) and escape paying for the environmental consequences. Among the hundreds of pages in this publication are detailed maps of mining rights, mining contracts with illegal kickbacks and secret investigative reports. The documents have been long sought by fraud investigators. In December 2015 a case was filed against Areva, alleging corruption related to the €1.8 billion purchase of three uranium mines in 2007. Effective oversight process by the local authorities is subverted either by duping state officials with deceiving front companies, such as the UN registered World Sports Alliance (WSA), now recycled into a cover for mining companies, or by corrupting them through the payment of ‘cash bonuses’. After a profitable exploitation of resources, companies such as Areva – a French multinational group specialising in nuclear power – abandon the country, leaving behind nuclear contamination without having launched any of the promised investments.
Wikileaks 5th Feb 2016 read more »