Canada Puts Corrupt African Leaders on Notice
By Jamii Forum.
Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Rob Nicholson, Minister of Justice, Thursday tabled the Freezing Assets of Corrupt Regimes Act in Parliament aimed at freezing assets that former repressive foreign leaders may hold in Canada.
“Today I tabled the Freezing Assets of Corrupt Regimes Act in Parliament to give the Government of Canada new and more robust tools in our fight against corruption and the misappropriation of state funds by repressive foreign leaders,” said Minister Cannon.
This legislation will allow Canada to act upon the request of a foreign state to freeze the assets that their former leaders and members of their entourage, including family members, senior officials and associates, may have placed in Canadian financial institutions. It will also give Canada the authority to seize any property such individuals may own in this country.
“Recent developments in the Middle East and North Africa have shown the world how important it is to have legislation in place to allow for a quick response to ensure that foreign dictators cannot hide their ill-gotten wealth in our country,” added Minister Cannon.
Corruption is rife in Africa because there are banking institutions in Europe especially Switzerland, France, Jersey Island, Britain, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Austria, US and many others who accept money from African leaders without questioning the source of the money.
According to the UN around $148 billion is stolen from the continent by the political leaders, the business elite and civil servants every year with collusion and connivance of banking industries in Europe and North America.
These are the banks whose shady dealings with the political and business elite in Africa continue to impoverish African countries but which for profits sake the media refuse to tell the world about.
On February 2009, a French court had Omar Bongo's 9 bank accounts containing several millions of Euros frozen. In confirming the court's decision lawyer Jean-Philippe Le Bail said: "This concerns Crédit Lyonnais, in which the president of Gabon has two current accounts, two savings accounts and a share account, and BNP, in which he has two checking accounts, a savings account and a share account".
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