French billionaire with business interest in Ghana Vincent Bolloré accused of fraud over Africa ports

A coalition of African groups has filed fraud complaints against French billionaire Vincent Bolloré and one of his sons, accusing them of illegally obtaining the rights to operate ports and engaging in money laundering in several African countries including Ghana.

The groups, essentially from five African countries: Ghana, Togo, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon, filed complaints alleging fraud and corruption, accusing Vincent Bolloré of illegally obtaining and benefiting from port concessions in their respective countries.

Operations in Africa

President John Mahama, it will be recalled, hailed the group’s concession to manage operations at the Tema Port during his first term in office, when the deal was signed and sealed, as representing a significant strategic partnership in making Ghana a regional shipping hub.

Bolloré Group’s African ports and logistics business, which the tycoon sold off in 2022, employed more than 20,000 people in 20 African countries. It operated 16 ports, warehouses and transport hubs across the continent.

Cyrille Bolloré, Vincent Bolloré’s youngest son, became head of Bolloré Africa Logistics in 2019, taking over from his father.

The collective made up of non-governmental organisations in Ghana, Togo, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon called “Restitution for Africa” are accusing the Bolloré Group, Bolloré and his son of unlawfully receiving favours to run ports then “laundering” money in those countries through the sale of its Africa logistics business.

According to AFP, which broke the story, Bolloré did not immediately reply to an AFP request for comment. French investigators have already looked into allegations that the Bolloré Group had, through its consulting business, illegally backed the 2010 presidential campaigns of Faure Gnassingbe in Togo and Alpha Conde in Guinea, in exchange for port concessions in Lomé and Conakry.

Money laundering claims

The group’s lawyers managed to negotiate a settlement, but French financial prosecutors in 2024 requested Vincent Bolloré be tried on charges of corruption and complicity in breach of trust. The complaint now accuses Bolloré of corruption, benefitting from influence peddling and the unlawful taking of interests of local officials in Ghana, Cameroon,l and Côte d’Ivoire.

It charges that this is how the group obtained concessions to run the ports of Tema in Ghana, Douala and Kribi in Cameroon, and Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire. The collective alleges that the 2022 sale of Bolloré Africa Logistics, whose profits came from these allegedly illegally obtained port concessions, amounted to money laundering.

Bolloré’s holding company sold Bolloré Africa Logistics to the MSC shipping group for €5.7bn ($6.05bn) in 2022. It was thought at the time to be the mainstay of the tycoon’s fortune. Bolloré and his family are estimated to be worth $9.9bn, according to Forbes. He owns several right-wing media outlets in France.

Background

Vincent Bolloré was accused of fraud in 2021. According to a Special report, Vincent otained the right to build and run a state-of-the-art container terminal at Ghana’s Tema port. The report likened Bolloré’s concession of Ghana’s port to one he won for his operations at the port of Lomé, Togo, in return for financing the re-election of the country’s president, Faure Gnassingbé, in 2010.

On 26 February this year (2025), Bolloré and two of his fellow executives admitted, in a plea bargain, to bribing the Togolese president in exchange for favors at the port, and were fined €375,000 each. Bolloré’s company paid a €12 million fine (see Box, Bolloré – a monopoly in every port).

The judge was so shocked by what they had done in Togo that she rejected details of the plea bargain and ordered a trial of the executives,” the report added. In a special report, Pan African publication African-Confidential uncovered how ollore’s firm, Bolloré Africa Logistics, won the right to build and run a state-of-the-art container terminal at Ghana’s Tema port

The report described the new container port of Tema as a “lifeline not only for Ghana but for landlocked Burkina Faso and Mali, prough their 70% owned joint venture with the Ghana government, Meridian Port Services (MPS).” The agreement, which was signed under the administration of then Ghanaian President John Mahama, became a subject of a ninisterial investigation following his defeat in 2016 to President Nana Akufo-Addo.

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