Swiss probe money laundering claims against Gabon’s former first lady

GENEVA: Switzerland has been looking into money laundering claims against Gabon’s former first lady Sylvia Bongo Ondimba since 2023, according to prosecutors and legal documents seen by AFP on Monday.
The public prosecutor’s office in Geneva said that “an investigation for money laundering is currently under way,” confirming a report by the Swiss online outlet Gotham City.
A legal document obtained by AFP shows that the investigation began in November 2023 into whether Sylvia Bongo Ondimba arranged for several million euros to be transferred to a Geneva-based Swiss bank.
The alleged transfers came despite “suspicions of corruption of foreign public officials and embezzlement of public funds” by her and members of the Bongo family, it added.
“Consequently, the funds deposited with this institution were likely to be the proceeds of these criminal acts,” the document states.
It also reveals that the Criminal Appeals Chamber of the Geneva Court of Justice in May rejected an appeal by Sylvia Bongo, who was contesting the Gabonese government’s status as a plaintiff in the case.
The public prosecutor’s office did not provide further details, in particular about the progress of the investigation.
A court in Libreville last November sentenced Sylvia Bongo and her son Noureddin Bongo in their absence to 20 years in prison, notably for large-scale embezzlement of public funds.
The pair, who now live abroad, spent 20 months in custody after the August 30, 2023 military coup that ousted Ali Bongo Ondimba as president and brought General Brice Oligui Nguema to power.
Mother and son left the country in May 2025.
She has since denounced being subjected to what she said was violence and “torture” in detention. The Gabonese government denied the allegations.
Sylvia Bongo Ondimba’s husband Ali Bongo and his father Omar Bongo ruled the oil-rich central African country with an iron first for 55 years.
Lawyers for the Bongos said in May 2024 that they had filed a complaint in the French courts for “illegal arrest” and “unlawful confinement aggravated by acts of torture and acts of barbarism against several family members, including Sylvia and Noureddin Bongo.
Both hold French nationality.