Embezzlement Scandal At Gabon’s Presidency (Part 1): President ALI BONGO, Married To A French Lady, Appointed French Man, BRICE LACCRUCHE ALIHANGA, As Director Of Cabinet

Despite Suffering From Severe Stroke In 2018 Which Rendered Him Partly Incapacitated, President BONGO, Would Not Leave Office. First Lady, SYLVIA BONGO, And Eldest Son, NOUREDDIN, Took Advantage Of President BONGO’s Situation, To Fraudulently Use His Name To Embezzle Hundreds of Billions FCFA From The State, With The Complicity Of The Director Of  Cabinet. LACCRUCHE Was Arrested In 2021, While BONGO’s Wife, And Son, Were Then, Untouchables.  

The BONGO ONDIMBA Dynasty took hostage the neighbouring country, Gabon, for many decades. The Dynasty started with OMAR BONGO ONDIMBA, who came to power on December 2, 1967.  He did everything to hang on to power, and died while still President of Gabon on June 8, 2009 in Barcelona Spain, where he had gone for medical attention. Before dying, Omar Bongo had groomed his son, ALI ben BONGO ONDIMBA, whom he had appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, to take over from him.  After Omar Bongo’s death, his son, Ali Bongo, took over power after a heavily rigged presidential election that was organized by Omar Bongo loyalists, to enforce his wish to see his son succeed him. At the end of his first seven year mandate in 2016, President Ali Bongo, followed in his father’s foot step, by taking measures to organize and win the 2016 presidential election at all cost.

But in 2018, President Ali Bongo unfortunately suffered a severe stroke, which affected parts of his body, including his hands and legs. He was hospitalized for long in Saudi Arabia, and later spent several months in Morocco for recuperation.  But in reality he only partly recovered. Ali Bongo only returned to Gabon because there was increasing criticism in the country about the President’s long absence, and his insistence to hang on to power instead of stepping down for the interest of the country.  When The President returned to Gabon, access to him by collaborators, including members of government, remained very limited.  It was the First Lady who decided who could have access to him. President Ali Bongo was unable to sign any document, because the stroke had severely affected his hands.  It was thus assumed by members of Government that he was using the signature- stamp.

French Man As Director Of Cabinet

Worth noting, that  President Ali Bongo, through the influence of his French wife, or better still his wife of French origin, SYLVIE AIMEE MARIE VALENTIN epse BONGO ONDIMBA, had sacked his Director of  Cabinet, MAIXENT ACCROMBESSI, whom the First Lady accused of gross disrespect for her person. Still through the influence of the French wife, President Ali Bongo appointed BRICE LACCRUCHE ALIHANGA; a French national, to the strategic and sensitive post of Director of Cabinet at the Presidency. President Ali Bongo thus surrounded himself with a French wife, and a Frenchman as Director of Cabinet, to whom he also gave lots of power.

It should however be pointed out that during the era of Ali Bongo as President of Gabon, quite a number of foreigners from Asia and Europe based in Gabon took up Gabonese nationality,  claiming to have naturalized. Some of them were quite close to the presidential couple and enjoyed privileges that real Gabonese did not have. One of the closest friends of Ali Bongo, who had access to the Presidency at all times, and who became very powerful in Gabon due to his close relation with the President, was a man simply known as Maitre Park. He was a South Korean that had lived in Gabon for decades. It should be noted that a British national who naturalized in Gabon, was even a member of Ali Bongo’s Government (Minister of Forestry).  Double nationality was not a problem in Gabon. But many thought that the post of Director of Cabinet at the Presidency of Gabon was too strategic and sensitive to give to somebody who was not originally of Gabonese nationality.

French Man Becomes ‘Acting President’ Of Gabon

Meanwhile, when Ali Bongo unfortunately suffered a severe stroke in 2018, the man who in reality illegally took over the running of the country was the French man, Brice Laccruche Alihanga, who was Director of Cabinet. Of course the French born First Lady, Sylvie Bongo, was the force behind him. The First Lady manipulated things in such a way that it became almost impossible for any member of Government, or the President’s collaborator, with the exception of the Director of Cabinet, was able to have access to the President when he was hospitalized in Saudi Arabia. It was the same thing when President Ali Bongo left Saudi Arabia to Morocco for recuperation. So the Director of Cabinet, Brice Laccruche Alihanga, became so powerful, that members of Government, that had no access to the President, were now taking direct instructions from him, who in everything claimed to be following the instructions or directives of President Ali Bongo.

In fact, Laccruche, as the French man who was Director of Cabinet at the Presidency in Gabon was simply called, became so powerful, to the point where he was being openly referred as Acting President of Gabon. He had the powers through fake high instructions, to demand that the Minister of Finance, or the General Manager of a State owned company, makes available huge sums of money, without rendering any account.

It was not for nothing that Sylvia Bongo ensured that any member of the Gabonese Government who traveled to Saudi Arabia or later to Morocco, with the hope of meeting the bed-ridden President Ali Bongo in person, never succeeded to do so. She claimed she was following the advice of doctors, that, the President needed to be protected in the state in which he was, and that she had the right as wife to protect her husband. The only close collaborator, that could meet the President, was the Director of Cabinet, Laccruche

  Huge Embezzlement Of Public Funds

It was right back from the long period that President Ali Bongo was hospitalized in Saudi Arabia, that his wife, French born SYLVIE AIME MARIE VALENTIN epse BONGO ONDIMBA, who later preferred Sylvia to Sylvie, and her eldest son, NOUREDDIN BONGO VALENTIN, took advantage of the situation to embark on a mafia of using the President’s name to embezzle huge sums of public funds.  But neither the First Lady nor her son had the powers to have direct access to public funds. So the man they used was the Director of Cabinet, Brice Laccruche Alihanga.

When President Ali Bongo was hospitalized in Saudi Arabia, his wife and eldest son frequently cooked up stories for the Director of Cabinet, to contact the Gabonese Minister of Finance, to say that the President had instructed that a huge sum of money be sent immediately for his medical bills or for other things. The Minister of Finance would immediately do that. Most of the money was coming from the ‘secret account’ of funds from the sale of Gabonese oil and minerals. The Director of Cabinet will get the money, and pass it over to the First Lady, who will of course give him something, and then she and her son will pocket the rest. It was the same thing when President Ali Bongo later travelled to Morocco.  It should be noted that the Omar Bongo – Ali Bongo Presidency had a very close tie with the leadership of the Kingdom of Morocco.

Change Of Strategy

Meanwhile when President Ali Bongo finally returned to Gabon, he had to stay indoors for another long period, for recuperation. He in fact was forced to return to Gabon at the time he did, because the opposition was increasingly calling for his replacement in line with the Constitution, as they considered that the President of Republic, Ali ben Bongo Ondimba, had become incapacitated.

When President Ali Bongo returned to the country, the First Lady and his son had to change the strategy in the way they were using the President’s name to embezzle public funds. President Bongo started using a signature – stamp, since he was still unable to sign his signature, because of the effect of the stroke.

What the First Lady, and her eldest son did, was that they secretly acquired a fake signature – stamp of President Ali Bongo. The stamp was allegedly fabricated abroad, by an expert in forgery. The forged signature of President Ali Bongo looked quite authentic. The First Lady, Sylvia Bongo, and her eldest son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, would use the name of the President of the Republic, Ali Bongo, to address fake correspondences to the Minister of Finance, the General Managers of rich State owned companies, and so on, asking for huge sums of money.  They would then put the fake signature – stamp of the President, on the correspondence, and the Director of Cabinet will sent it to the authority concern. The authority will take the money to the Presidency, and handover to the Director of Civil Cabinet, or put in a particular account as directed, without meeting the President in person.

The First Lady and her son went to extent of using the fake signature of the President of the Republic, which as mentioned looked quite authentic, to sack some people from certain strategic posts like Director of Treasury, and replace them with persons who were very loyal to them.

In fact in an interview granted a combined team of France 24 and FRI in April 2025, a few days before the recent presidential election in Gabon, the country’s President, General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, made mentioned of the fake signature – stamp that the former First Lady, Sylvia Bongo, was using to embezzle huge amounts of public funds, and that the Government had concrete proofs.

Extravagant Life Styles

Meanwhile, with the billions of francs CFA that were regularly flowing to them through embezzlement of public funds, the First Lady, Sylvia Bongo, and her eldest son, Noureddin, got into a very extravagant life style, which became really insulting in the face of the Gabonese people.  Noureddin became notorious for organizing very expensive and highly restricted top class parties, with hired beautiful girls flown him from some countries, including Cameroon, to entertain his male friends at the party.  The First Lady and her son also reportedly bought quite a number of expensive houses or buildings in some foreign countries, as private investments.

It should be noted that the First Lady was known to have a real estate business in Gabon. But many of the houses over which the enterprise (real estate) claimed ownership, were actually buildings that were originally owned by the State of Gabon, which the First Lady with the complicity of her notary, seized or grabbed with impunity, for her enterprise. Suffice to say that the Gabonese First Lady, Sylvia Bongo, and her eldest son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, became multibillionaires through embezzlement of public funds, and other crooked means.

As for the Director of Cabinet, Brice Laccruche Alihanga, he also became very powerful and rich, and was permanently living a high –class lifestyle.

Complaints Of Alleged Embezzlement Of Public Funds / Director Of Cabinet Arrested

Meanwhile by 2021, President Ali Bongo Ondimba had recovered to an extent from the stroke, though he still for example had some serious problems, like to move. He however formerly resumed work. Lots of rumours were circulating in Gabon that the Director of Cabinet at the Presidency, Brice Laccruche Alihanga, and some other authorities had taken advantage of President Ali Bongo’s situation in the last few years, to loot and plunder the country’s financial resources. The Ali Bongo Government launched an anti –corruption operation, and Laccruche was one of those that fell into the dragnet, for alleged embezzlement of hundreds of billions francs CFA of public funds. Following the indictment,   President Ali Bongo fired Brice Laccruche Alihanga from the post of Director of Cabinet at the Presidency, and gave the green light for his arrest. Laccruche was arrested and placed on pre-trial detention at the Central Prison in the Gabonese capital, Libreville.

The French man, Laccruche, who had seemingly thought that his ‘big sister’ the First Lady, French born Sylvia Bongo, would use her influence to rescue him, felt betrayed and abandoned by her. He then resolved to defend himself by exposing the First Lady. Laccruche insisted on meeting face –to – face in court, with the then First Lady, Sylvia Bongo. He alleged that all what he did, that is, in demanding that some members of Government, especially the Minister of Finance, as well as some General Managers of State owned companies, should make available huge sums of money, were done on the instruction of the First Lady, and that he handed all the hundreds of billions of francs CFA that he was accused to had embezzlement, to the First Lady. Laccruche alleged that the First Lady made frequent demands for huge sums of money, claiming that she was acting on the directives of her husband, President Ali Bongo.

Suffice to say Laccruche was ‘ignored’, as no judicial authority then could dare summon the First Lady to appear in court, more so to answer questions related to allegations of embezzlement of public funds.  It should however be said that Laccruche certainly also benefitted much from the embezzlement deals. The big sums of money he was for example throwing around to sustain his high life style, was definitely not coming from his salary.

Brigadier General Brice  Clotaire Oilgui Nguema

Meanwhile, one of the persons who knew so well that the First lady, Sylvia Bongo, and her eldest son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, had exploited the health situation of  President Ali Bongo to use his name to rob the country of huge sums of money, was Brigadier General Brice Clotaire Oiligui Nguema, the cousin of President Ali Bongo.  As a loyal family member, Brice Oligue Nguema was initially the body guard of President Omar Bongo, the father of Ali Bongo. As a trusted family member of the President of the Republic, Brice Oligui Nguema along the line occupied strategic posts in the security network, including at one time the post of Director of the secret service. President Ali Bongo crowned it all by later appointing his trusted cousin, Commander of the Republican Guard, and made the Republican Guard the best equipped and most powerful security force in Gabon.

Worth noting that the Republican Guard in Gabon is the equivalent of the Presidential Guard in Cameroon. In fact the current Presidential Guard in Cameroon used to be known as Republican Guard during the Presidency of Ahmadou Ahidjo. It was President Biya who changed the name to Presidential Guard. The principal function of the Presidential Guard in Cameroon, just like the Republican Guard in Gabon, is to take care of the security of the President of the Republic and his family, including presidential palaces or residences across the country, and so on.

Meanwhile, Brigadier General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema was really worried by the pitiful health situation of the cousin, President Ali Bongo, and how his wife and eldest son had instead taken advantage of the situation to use the President’s name to embezzle hundreds of billions of public funds. However his hope was that at the end of President Ali Bongo’s second seven year mandate in 2023, he would leave power, especially considering his health situation.