| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Momodou |
Posted - 04 May 2025 : 22:28:54
PART ONE OF THE SERIALISATIONS OF CONFISCATED ASSETS OF THE DICTATOR!
The assets of Gambia’s former dictator, go for a song!
April 30, 2025, Mustapha K. Darboe
Mustapha K. Darboe
After 22 years of rule in his poor, indebted country, Yahya Jammeh reluctantly went into self-imposed exile to Equatorial Guinea following a shocking election defeat to Adama Barrow. A State investigation into his alleged financial wrongdoings found he had stolen at least $362m, lavishly spent on expensive vehicles, aircraft, and real estate.
All his assets were forfeited to the State.
Still, the process of recovering his loot has been marred by alleged corruption, with officials of the current administration allegedly selling assets to friends, family, and themselves at prices only a fraction of their worth. To the public, information about buyers of these assets, the amounts at which they were sold, and the circumstances are left much to speculation despite repeated questions by journalists, activists and lawmakers.
So far, only $23 716 725 has been recovered from the sale of his 35 real estate holdings, including a vehicle garage, livestock, five aircraft, 458 vehicles, 197 tractors, shares in four companies, dividend payments from three companies, and valuable items found at his Dunes Resort and Casino.
Pulling the rug under the court’s feet!
In 2018, a High Court Judge, Hon. Justice Mrs Amina Saho-Ceesay (as she then was), froze some of the former president Yahya Jammeh's assets at the request of the Justice Ministry under ex-minister Abubacarr Tambadou. Justice Saho-Ceesay appointed Augustus Prom as the Receiver.
Without the knowledge of the Court, Tambadou reportedly sacked Prom and subsequently hired another firm, Alpha Kapital Advisory LP, tasking it to dispose of the assets of Yahya Jammeh. Alpha Kapital is a partnership owned by Alpha Amadou Barry and Abdoulie Barry, which was registered on September 21, 2017, about two months after the investigation into the finances of the former dictator Jammeh. Alpha is a chartered accountant who, sources say, is a close friend of former justice minister Tambadou, a claim Tambadou denies. “Until this point in time, I had never had any personal or professional relationship with Mr Barry, let alone describe the relationship as an acquaintance,” said Tamabdou. Little is publicly available on Alpha’s partner Abdoulie.
The details of how the firm was selected remain murky, as the position was never advertised or approved by the Gambia Public Procurement Authority, according to the Agency. Tambadou said appointments in asset recovery processes are not usually “subjected to public advertisement.”
Alpha Kapital was hired in the second week of June 2019, three months after the Commission submitted its report to President Adama Barrow and one year and ten months after the firm was registered. Tambadou said the firm was hired by the ministerial committee comprising himself, former tourism minister Hamat Bah, and former lands minister Musa Drammeh.
In a letter to the Chief Justice on various issues, Hon. Justice Saho-Ceesay protested that the sacking of a court-appointed Receiver using “administrative procedures” is “unknown to law”. “The fate of respondent’s (Yahya Jammeh) properties and companies is not known to the Court as no subsequent report was filed by the Trustee…,” said Justice Saho. “The case file, however, remains open.” Since then, the Ministry of Justice has not applied to Justice Saho-Ceesay for the closure of the file or the discharge of the appointment of a court-appointed receiver, Augustus Prom. Tambadou said Prom was never sacked. “Instead, his appointment as interim receiver was allowed to continue until its natural end together with the temporary freezing order granted by the high court,” said Tambadou.
Enter MOAB Capital!
The relationship between Hon. Justice Saho-Ceesay and the Tambadou-led justice ministry became sour in July 2018. The Ministry applied to release the plots of Jammeh’s land within the Tourism Development Area frozen by the High Court, but Hon. Justice Saho-Ceesay refused the release order.
On June 14, about three weeks before the application, Tambadou wrote to the Janneh Commission in a letter that was copied to the former minister of tourism, Hamat Bah, requesting a ‘no objection’ to releasing the lands. Tambadou said the lands would be used to develop facilities, including 6 five-star hotels and 5 four-star hotels with an estimated 3,110 beds in preparation for both the tourism season and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit initially scheduled for November 2019.
Hon. Justice Saho-Ceesay argued that the release of Jammeh’s landed properties for use by the State without any forfeiture order from the Commission would be a “travesty” of justice.
“For the government to descend upon the Respondent’s properties at this point, in the absence of the conclusion of the criminal investigation and a subsequent order of confiscation, will, with respect, amount to nothing short of a travesty,” said Hon. Justice Saho-Ceesay in her ruling in July 2018.
When the High Court was on vacation, the Ministry of Justice filed the same application before a vacation judge, Hon. Justice Ebrima Jaiteh, who released the assets. A furious Justice Saho-Ceesay wrote to the Chief Justice protesting the Ministry’s action and the varying order issued by Hon. Justice Jaiteh.
On January 27, 2025, Justice Jaiteh confirmed to The Republic that his court was blindfolded into making this decision, which was an apparent “abuse of process”. “They should have filed an appeal against the court decision at the Court of Appeal and not file a fresh case before me. I was not aware of Amina's judgement. It was an abuse of process,” said Hon. Justice Jaiteh. But former minister Tambadou said their application before Justice Jaiteh was fresh with additional details, adding that submitting “two separate applications before courts of similar jurisdiction” could not “be qualified automatically as an abuse of process”.
The evidence filed before the parliamentary committee that investigated land allocations made by the Gambia Tourism Board in 2023 shows that one of the parcels of land released by Hon. Justice Jaiteh was allocated to MOAB Capital Company, a business registered in January 2019 and owned by Binta Sompo Ceesay. The 6.10 hectares of land, with lease number K355/2009, stretches from Djembe Beach to Palma Junction.
Binta was reported to be a friend of former minister Tambadou during this process. Several sources told The Republic that she participated as a sales agent for the Alpha Kapital Advisory, the firm hired to dispose of the assets and shares of the ex-president Jammeh. Tambadou and Binta would marry in December 2022.
Tambadou said her relationship with Binta started in 2010 when he hired her as an agent to rent out his property in Bijilo. In mid-2019, he instructed her to sell their family’s property at the Fajara Golf Course. “By sheer coincidence, this private land sale transaction occurred around the time that the sale of Jammeh’s assets had commenced… it, most likely, must have given rise to the speculations that she was somehow involved in the Jammeh assets sale process whereas this was utterly untrue.”
Aside from the ‘flawed court process’ through which the ministry released the plot of land refused by Hon. Justice Saho-Ceesay, a group of Gambia Tourism Board staff alleged in 2020 that the former tourism minister Hamat Bah interfered in the allocation of land to MOAB, which occurred despite the owner failing to pay the mandatory 5% levy of $50, 000. MOAB’s project was initially valued at 4 million dollars, which put her 5% levy to be paid to the Gambia Tourism Board at $ 200,000, according to the GT Board staff who wrote the petition to the parliament. Tambadou was chair of the ministerial committee that oversaw the sale of Jammeh’s assets. The former tourism minister, now the local government minister— Hamat Bah— was a member of the ministerial committee.
Binta paid the levy in July 2020, about a year after receiving the provisional allocation from the Gambia Tourism Board. The parliamentary inquiry also found that she was issued a sublease in ‘violation of land allocation procedures’. As the parliamentary investigation was ongoing, over a year after MOAB’s provisional allocation was made, the Ministry of Communication claimed the land she was allocated. The Gambia Tourism Board then suggested another plot in Tanji as compensation, something Binta turned down in 2022. MOAB’s allocation was cancelled in January 2023, and the $ 50,000 levy was paid, according to the Gambia Tourism Board. Our questions to Binta were not replied to until the time of this [publication.
“There is a need for more investigation on the land issued to MOAB Capital Ltd, and the investor acquired a lease before paying the 5% levy, which was only paid after the petition was made,” concluded a parliamentary inquiry. “If the petition was not done, the Gambia Tourism Board may not have received the $200,000 (later reduced to $ 50,000) development levy.” Three staff members of the GT Board who were part of the petition to parliament told The Republic that their former director Abdoulie Hydara reportedly told them to hasten the application process because Tambadou was the owner.
We could not independently verify this. “I can confirm that the plot allocated to MOAB was not mine,” said Tambadou. “However, since I might have, on a few occasions, innocuously enquired about progress in the matter on her behalf, I will not rule out the possibility that this could have created the perception that I was an interested party.”
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Thank you for being a part of the OPEN GAMBIA PLATFORM community. Mustapha K. Darboe contributed to the article published in the theRepublic.gm Investigation Journal on April 30, 2025! Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of TheOpenGambiaPlatform!
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Source: Open Gambia Platform
Related Topics: https://www.gambia.dk/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=15660
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| 7 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Momodou |
Posted - 04 May 2025 : 22:34:19
PART EIGHT OF THE SERIALISATIONS OF CONFISCATED ASSETS OF THE DICTATOR!
The assets of Gambia’s former dictator, go for a song!
April 30, 2025, Mustapha K. Darboe
Mustapha K. Darboe
US mansion goes to victims of human rights violation!
In his 22-year rule, the Gambian leader Jammeh built a public image as a ‘pan—African’, frequently criticising the West’s policies in Africa. Away from the camera, Jammeh acquired an extravagant taste for Western products.
In September 2010, through a trustee—MYJ Family Trust—he procured a $3.5m mansion in Maryland, US. In 2022, the US Department of Justice secured a forfeiture of the asset after investigations in Gambia and the US confirmed that the real estate was procured with stolen wealth.
According to Justice Minister Dawda Jallow, the proceeds from the sale of the assets are due to be paid directly to the former dictator's victims, who are eligible to receive reparations for human rights violations.
An assessment by Gambia’s truth commission shows it needed at least $4m to pay reparations owed to all the victims of the former dictator. Close to $ 700,000 had already been paid to the victims. Part of the outstanding $3.3m payments is $625 610 allocated to the relatives of the West African migrants killed on suspicion of being mercenaries in Gambia in 2005.
In April, the Gambian authorities established a Commission tasked to complete the reparations payments to victims already identified by the Truth Commission. The newly established Commission is also expected to assess other potential victims worthy of reparations. Jammeh was accused of killing over 200 people and responsible for the torture of many others in his 22–year rule, an inquiry established by the authorities has found.
Thank you for being a part of the OPEN GAMBIA PLATFORM community. Mustapha K. Darboe contributed to the article published in the therepublic.gm Investigation Journal on April 30, 2025! Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of TheOpenGambiaPlatform!
You can now write for the Open Gambia Platform, share information anonymously, and join the community. Please share your stories!
“This story was supported by Code for Africa and funded by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).” |
| Momodou |
Posted - 04 May 2025 : 22:33:39
PART SEVEN OF THE SERIALISATIONS OF CONFISCATED ASSETS OF THE DICTATOR!
The assets of Gambia’s former dictator, go for a song!
April 30, 2025, Mustapha K. Darboe
Mustapha K. Darboe
Ignoring better offers on the sale of aircraft!
In 2018 and 2019, the Gambia government sold five aircraft left behind by the former dictator to a popular businessman, Momodou Turo Darboe, for $740 000 without any form of bidding, according to records. In July 2020, former finance minister Mambury Njie told lawmakers that the “… planes were bought through an offer made by the intended buyer and not by bidding.”
Njie claimed before lawmakers that though other offers were made, they were too minimal to be mentioned. However, available evidence points to the contrary.
The records obtained by The Republic show several offers by agents and potential buyers of the state aircraft that were better than offers made by Darboe. About 8 months before the Ministry of Finance under Amadou Sanneh sold Jammeh’s two agricultural spraying aircraft to Turo Darboe for $240, 000— the West Africa Aero Services had offered to buy the two jets for €240 000. The difference between the two offers is at least D1.6m in Dalasi value. When contacted by The Republic in January 2024, Sanneh claimed he was not aware of the sale of the aircraft, though it was sold in May 2018, a month before he was moved to the Ministry of Trade.
At least seven months before the US-based Viridis Aviation Partners valued the aircraft, the company offered to sell them. It only charges the government 7.5% of the total sale value of the plane, which is between $1.6m and $2.2 m.
“Using a commission-based remuneration, we aim to alleviate the unnecessary burden of having to further invest in an asset that you have already decided to dispose of, whilst at the same time guaranteeing a maximum possible return on the asset by pegging our fees against sales value,” said Virdis in a letter to Gambia’s presidency and the office of the secretary-general.
In July 2017, another US-based aircraft maintenance company that had previously worked on one of the aircraft— B727 C5–GOG— offered to serve as an agent to sell it for an 8% commission. According to the Gambia Civil Aviation Authority, this VIP-configured aircraft made its last flight in December 2016. In a letter to Gambia’s presidency, Stamburg Aviation in Georgia, US, said the aircraft could fetch up to $1.7m, though it formed part of the three aircraft the government sold to Darboe for $500 000.
When contacted for comment, former minister Njie referred The Republic to Yahya Drammeh, a deputy permanent secretary at the Ministry of Finance, who said he coordinated the sale. Drammeh also referred the Publication to Malick Jagne of the Gambia Civil Aviation Authority, who he said “ made all the recommendations and assessments.” Jagne noted that while the GCCA made the “evaluation and recommendations,” the Ministry decided to sell the aircraft, adding that the government had also failed to determine whether to sell the plane on time.
Thank you for being a part of the OPEN GAMBIA PLATFORM community. Mustapha K. Darboe contributed to the article that was published by therepublic.gm Investigation Journal on April 30, 2025! Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of TheOpenGambiaPlatform!
You can now write for the Open Gambia Platform, share information anonymously, and join the community. Please share your stories!
“This story was supported by Code for Africa and funded by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).” |
| Momodou |
Posted - 04 May 2025 : 22:33:18
PART SIX OF THE SERIALISATIONS OF CONFISCATED ASSETS OF THE DICTATOR!
The assets of Gambia’s former dictator, go for a song!
April 30, 2025, Mustapha K. Darboe
Mustapha K. Darboe
The judge and the jury!
In his 22–year rule, the Gambian dictator was many things: a miracle healer who cures AIDS with an herbal concoction and a pious Muslim crowned leader of the people of faith (nasirudeen). Farming was at the top of what he wanted to be known for. This drove his ambition to have a tractor-assembling plant in the country.
In 2005, he secured a $6.7m loan agreement from the Exim Bank of India to import and assemble 500 tractors. Many imported tractors were distributed to farmers primarily affiliated with his Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) party. The inquiry into his financial wrongdoing recovered over 200 tractors; 197 were sold.
Seven years later, people are asked about the number of tractors sold, their conditions, the names of buyers, and the amounts paid for each. From June to October 2018, the Janneh Commission auctioned 197 tractors in total, according to their scanty yet unpublished report, which neither has the names of the buyers nor any details or pictures regarding the state of the tractors.
Before he fell out with the Commission, former secretary Alhaji Mamadi Kurang sold 43 tractors through an open bid and generated D10,523,000 (equivalent to $212 547 in February 2019). Barely three months after Kurang was sacked, the Commission auctioned 154 tractors—over three times the number Kurang sold—generating D13,083,000 ($ 263,948 in February 2019)—only 2.5% more revenue than Kurang.
Amadou Sanneh, a former finance minister at the time, was on the list of people questioning how the tractors were sold. “… We were not aware (of the sale of tractors). We only knew about it after they were sold,” said former minister Amadou Sanneh, who spoke to The Republic in January 2024. Sanneh noted that the Commission, by selling itself, was acting as a judge and jury.
“Whatever they have saved, they should transfer to the arm of the government that is responsible… In financial transactions, we (referring to his profession as an auditor) try to avoid giving too much power to one entity.”
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Thank you for being a part of the OPEN GAMBIA PLATFORM community. Mustapha K. Darboe contributed to the article published in the theRepublic.gm Investigation Journal on April 30, 2025! Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of TheOpenGambiaPlatform!
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“This story was supported by Code for Africa and funded by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).” |
| Momodou |
Posted - 04 May 2025 : 22:32:36
PART FIVE OF THE SERIALISATIONS OF CONFISCATED ASSETS OF THE DICTATOR!
The assets of Gambia’s former dictator, go for a song!
April 30, 2025, Mustapha K. Darboe
Mustapha K. Darboe
‘Needless transaction’ that only enriched the receiver!
Opaque sale of vehicles!
Gambia’s former dictator is a bundle of contradictions. While he created a public image as a pan-Africanist and strong critic of the West, his acquisitions showed an expensive taste for Western products. During his 22–year rule, he procured customised luxury vehicles, such as Rolls Royce and limousines, with inscriptions of the names of his children, wife, and himself on the back of the seats.
As the inquiry into his alleged financial wrongdoing progressed, the Commission put many of his vehicles for sale, a controversial decision that a high court justice Amina Ceesay Saho ruled in a different suit was a travesty of justice.
Tambadou said the “Commission’s mandate was sufficiently broad enough to allow it to take measures to prevent further loss or damage to property while the inquiry was ongoing.” The Republic has requested an inventory of the vehicles sold, their quantity, valuation reports, and the revenue generated. Though the Ministry of Justice promised to provide these details, the request has not yet been honoured.
Ex-president Jammeh left Gambia in a rush. Following his shocking election defeat, he claimed he did not lose to Barrow and annulled the results. With a history of eccentricity, the regional leaders knew any efforts to dissuade Jammeh would need a carrot and a stick. Thus, several thousand strong forces were deployed, gathering at the border with Senegal, as diplomats and former and sitting presidents talked him into handing over power to Barrow.
In that chaos shortly after he left, as the chaos settled, his close associates took a quick inventory of his vehicles. This list, only a fraction of his total number of vehicles, includes a Chevrolet, limousine bus, VIP Mercedes Benz B5, Escalades, Bentley, five long limo Hummers, two long pickup Hummers, and two short Hummers.
A document seen by The Republic shows the vehicles were under the control of the Office of the Vehicle Control Unit at the presidency. The inventory taken by Jammeh’s associates shows the head of the unit — Nfamara Saidybah – had taken at least two vehicles from their parking spots. When contacted for information, the government vehicle controller Saidybah referred The Republic to the Commission’s report “to know the whole process of the sales of your findings.”
As the Commission investigated Jammeh, it decided to sell the vehicles, like much of his assets. After this sale, a report was drafted by one Fatou Drammeh. We have tried to reach Fatou since February 2024 through a US number, we believe hers but have not gotten a reply. The report offered no details about the buyers, inventory, number of vehicles sold, their brands and conditions, or other vital information. The auctioneer’s report claimed: “… some vehicles that were identified and valued were missing at the time of the auction while officials from different government departments were still using some.” It did not mention which vehicles were missing, their custody, and how much they were worth.
The report added: “… Majority of vehicles that were identified and valued were found to have been tampered with, and components were missing, which has rendered them scrap…” No picture of the vehicles could be found in the report. The Janneh Commission’s report, Volume 1 and 2, did note that an inventory of the cars was taken and claimed this was attached in Appendix 1. However, this section was removed before the report’s publication.
In March 2019, former justice minister Tambadou told lawmakers that the Commission sold 458 vehicles. According to the report seen by The Republic, the sale—which included “other movables” that were not specified—generated D44,288,170, or $893 510 in February 2019—or an average of D96 000 a vehicle. There was no clarity on how much sales of “other movables” constituted.
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Thank you for being a part of the OPEN GAMBIA PLATFORM community. Mustapha K. Darboe contributed to the article published in the theRepublic.gm Investigation Journal on April 30, 2025! Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of TheOpenGambiaPlatform!
You can now write for the Open Gambia Platform, share information anonymously, and join the community. Please share your stories!
“This story was supported by Code for Africa and funded by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).” |
| Momodou |
Posted - 04 May 2025 : 22:31:59
PART FOUR OF THE SERIALISATIONS OF CONFISCATED ASSETS OF THE DICTATOR!
The assets of Gambia’s former dictator, go for a song!
April 30, 2025, Mustapha K. Darboe
Mustapha K. Darboe
‘Needless transaction’ that only enriched the receiver!
In the sale of Jammeh’s assets by at least 4 different state entities, none appears to have been done transparently, nor were significant details about the sales published. The Gambia Public Procurement Authority was not involved. The latest sale by Alpha Kapital was done through a closed bid. A closed bid allows buyers to make their offers for a price without knowing what others are offering.
At least 18 assets, the most expensive of which is D15m, were published on a website. There is no evidence of any other publication on the site.
Alhagie Mamadi Kurang — a chartered accountant — was a Secretary to the Commission who left after a disagreement with its leadership. “These assets should have been sold through open bidding. That would have fetched the state more money,” said Kurang.
However, the criticisms against the sales were merely more than the use of closed bids, which reportedly made the State lose money.
A good chunk of the assets and shares — including over a D100m spent on Futurelec by the Central Bank of the Gambia – were trading between the government or its agencies and itself. Social Security and Gambia National Petroleum Corporation have spent nearly D300m procuring 17.2% of Muhammed Bazzi’s 31% shares from Gam Petroleum. Bazzi was a close associate of ex-president Jammeh, whose assets were forfeited to the state after the Janneh Commission found him culpable for the dictator’s corrupt practices. All his assets, including company shares, were forfeited to the state.
Social Security procured 14.3% of the shares, while Gambia National Petroleum Corporation procured 2.9% from Gam Petroleum. The Gambia Ports Authority, where Alpha Barry of Alpha Kapital served as a board chair until December 2019, also purchased a D1m property at Hagan in Banjul.
When contacted, the managing director of the GPA, Ousman Jobarteh, said the procured property was to be utilised in their Port expansion project.
“Only the agent (Alpha Kapital) gains from these sales. We have granted a transactional fee to someone for transferring ownership of state assets from one state institution to another,” argued Kurang. Tambadou sees it differently. “The act of simply transferring forfeited assets belonging to the state to these SOEs at zero cost would have been unlawful and would have meant the loss of income for the government,” he argued.
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Thank you for being a part of the OPEN GAMBIA PLATFORM community. Mustapha K. Darboe contributed to the article published in the theRepublic.gm Investigation Journal on April 30, 2025! Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of TheOpenGambiaPlatform!
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“This story was supported by Code for Africa and funded by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).” |
| Momodou |
Posted - 04 May 2025 : 22:31:03
PART THREE OF THE SERIALISATIONS OF CONFISCATED ASSETS OF THE DICTATOR!
The assets of Gambia’s former dictator, go for a song!
April 30, 2025, Mustapha K. Darboe
Mustapha K. Darboe
A Fajara property sold at a ‘giveaway price’!
In June 2020, former justice minister Abubacarr Tambadou appeared before lawmakers to update them on the sale of former president Yahya Jammeh's assets. Tambadou submitted a report to the lawmakers that recorded the list of Jammeh’s properties and their buyers.
Baboucarr Sompo Ceesay bought back his property measuring 812.90 square metres at Fajara South Atlantic, where experts say the value of property increases by at least 10% yearly. No amount was recorded, nor was there any valuation amount in the document. According to an investigation by the Janneh Commission, Jammeh bought this property through the Kanilai Family Farm in 2008.
The property was mortgaged to the Arab Gambia Islamic Bank Limited in December 2004 by Baboucarr. “AGIB obtained a judgment for the sum of D8, 763, 254 against Baboucarr Sompo Ceesay and order for judicial sale of the property,” reported the Commission.
Sompo was recently appointed commissioner to a regulatory body of Gambia’s state-owned enterprises. In the most recent report released by the Ministry of Justice, the price to buy back the property was D3.150m, only D150,000 higher than the amount Jammeh paid 15 years earlier. A professional land valuator contacted by The Republic placed the land’s value in 2019 at D8.5m. The Fajara property made it into the report released by the Ministry of Justice in June 2023, about 2 years after Tambadou resigned. Babucarr claimed Jammeh forced the bank to sell the property to him, though there was no evidence before the Commission. “All these properties Jammeh bought should have been given back to people for free,” he said, claiming many of those transactions were a sham.
The Republic’s investigation has found no records that this property was valued as instructed by the Janneh Commission. Sources at the Ministry of Justice said the property was jointly bought by Baboucarr and his ex-wife, Binta Ceesay, who applied to put the names of their three children in the deeds. In a letter to Alpha Barry in July 2020, Binta claimed to have paid for the property. In her letter, she protested that she was withdrawing from the transaction and asked for a refund after her former husband failed to comply with some undisclosed agreement they had. Her letter appeared to have responded to a letter by Baboucarr to the Ministry of Justice in May 2020 asking for the property to be put in the names of the three children the couple had.
However, Babucarr told The Republic on April 29, a day after our requests for comments were sent, that the property is in his name and not in his children’s. Ex–justice minister Tambadou said their ministerial committee allowed Babucarr to buy back his property for almost the same price on claims that “President Jammeh, with the complicity of the Sheriff’s Division of the High Court at the time, deliberately undervalued their properties with the specific objective of enabling President Jammeh to acquire same below the fair market value at the time”.
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Thank you for being a part of the OPEN GAMBIA PLATFORM community. Mustapha K. Darboe contributed to the article published in the theRepublic.gm Investigation Journal on April 30, 2025! Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of TheOpenGambiaPlatform!
You can now write for the Open Gambia Platform, share information anonymously, and join the community. Please share your stories!
“This story was supported by Code for Africa and funded by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).” |
| Momodou |
Posted - 04 May 2025 : 22:30:48
PART TWO OF THE SERIALISATIONS OF CONFISCATED ASSETS OF THE DICTATOR!
The assets of Gambia’s former dictator, go for a song!
April 30, 2025, Mustapha K. Darboe
Mustapha K. Darboe
Alpha rakes in at least D89m!
Media reports have indicated that Barry was working with a former banker, Binta Sompo Ceesay—now the wife of retired minister Tambadou—to dispose of the assets. According to its agreement with the Ministry of Justice, the firm makes 10% on all assets sold and 5% on all shares liquidated. The Janneh Commission had earlier protested a similar 10% fee being taken by court-appointed Augustus Prom, demanding a reduction to 3%.
After deducting Alpha’s share, the revenue was to be deposited into an account at the Central Bank. The state shoulders the operational cost. “All other charges for reasonable expenses, including operational costs, shall be deducted from monies generated from the transactions,” added the agreement.
The revenue reports show Alpha made at least D89, 217, 610 ($1 438, 707 as of December 2022). A recent report released by the Ministry of Justice shows that Alpha has reported D455,829,000 ($7,350,619 as of December 2022) as revenue generated from sales of assets. His agreement with the Ministry of Justice allows him to deduct his cut before depositing the money into a CBG account, which, by The Republic’s calculation, amounts to D45,582,900.
The original amount generated from the disposal of the shares and dividends received totals D765,317,774 ($12 341 381 as of December 2022) and D107,376,431 ($1 731 533 in December 2022), with Alpha’s 5% cut accumulating to D38 265, 889 and D5,368,822.
Under-declaration to tax authorities?
Alpha Barry is a Gambian chartered accountant for an international audit firm, Deloitte. The records with the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) show his firm, Alpha Kapital Advisory—registered on September 21, 2017—was not active until after the sale of Jammeh’s assets, as it only started paying tax from 2019 to 2022.
“As far as our records are concerned, nothing was declared in 2017 and 2018, and nothing was paid in 2017 and 2018,” said our source at GRA.
The firm declared a total of D44,379,653 as its income in 2019 and 2020 to the Gambia Revenue Authority. In 2019, the firm declared D18,022,853 and paid D2,012,077 in taxes. It declared D26,356,800 in 2020 and paid D2,202,351 in taxes. It made no declaration in 2021 and 2022 but paid D1,000,000 and D2,500,000, respectively.
This totals D7, 714, 428 in taxes to GRA from 2019 to 2022. The firm made no declaration in 2021 and 2022, but The Republic’s calculation of his shares in the sales shows he has made at least D89,217,610 from the sale of assets and shares.
According to the tax laws, the GRA charges the highest of either 1% of total earnings or 27% of profit. Without filing returns or audited accounts, which Alpha Kapital failed to do until February 2025 for the fiscal years 2021 and 2022, the tax office — according to a source who does not want to be named — cannot correctly calculate his tax liabilities.
“… If one fails to file a tax return, the person can only be assessed based on Best of Judgment, which is an estimated assessment,” said a source at GRA. We contacted Alpha Barry for comment, but he declined, accusing The Republic of biased reporting. “You have already reached your conclusions. Go ahead and write what you want to write,” he said over the phone after he was asked if he had seen the email sent to him.
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Thank you for being a part of the OPEN GAMBIA PLATFORM community. Mustapha K. Darboe contributed to the article published in the theRepublic.gm Investigation Journal on April 30, 2025! Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of TheOpenGambiaPlatform!
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“This story was supported by Code for Africa and funded by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).” |
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