The former Miss France was indicted in the so-called “ill-gotten gains” case for an apartment offered to her by Omar Bongo, former Gabonese president.
Sonia Rolland, Miss France 2000, is in turmoil. She was indicted, this Monday, May 30, in Paris, for “concealment of embezzlement of public funds”, “corruption” and “abuse of social assets” in the context of the case of “ill-gotten gains”, we inform, this Tuesday, May 31, our colleagues from Parisian. Justice accuses him of having accepted in 2013 as a gift from Omar Bongo – President of Gabon for more than 40 years and who died in 2009 (since it is his son, Ali, who was elected to lead the country ) – an apartment in the very chic 16th arrondissement of Paris.
“I did not know that the Bongo family had acquired so many properties in France”
As a reminder, for ten years, an investigation has been opened in France once morest “ill-gotten gains”. Luxury real estate has become the property of African Heads of State, who are suspected of having, to acquire them, embezzled a large part of the coffers of their respective States and benefited from a hidden purchasing system. The investigating judge in charge of the case believes that the ex-Miss Burgundy should have known that her gift apartment had been acquired via an occult financial arrangement.
Already heard in free hearing by the Central Office for the Suppression of Serious Financial Crime (OCRGDF), Sonia Rolland had affirmed, still according to The Parisian, discover the fraudulent acquisition of the property. “I did not know the method of financing and I was not interested in it (…) and I did not know that the Bongo family had acquired so many properties in France”, she justified herself.
According to her lawyer, the 40-year-old concedes having been “naive”: “My client was 22 years old, she was coming out of a period when she was projected into a universe of which she knew nothing. She disputes any violation”.
