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Public officials of #EquatorialGuinea confirm payments made to Vladimir Kokorev originated from legitimate business practices

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image 2Vladimir Kokorev, in the wheelchair, next to his attorney Leonardo Paul Atencio, before the Panama magistrate in charge of his extradition to Spain, in 2015

An invoice from Kalunga Company to the Guinean Ministry of Defence to the office of Equatorial Guinea’s General Prosecutor has certified that the Guinean Government made official payments to Vladimir Kokorev, a Russian-Jewish entrepreneur residing in Las Palmas (Spain), originated from contracts for construction and technical maintenance of a number of sea and land transportation vehicles, between the years 1999 and 2003, writes Jose S. Mujica.

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This is the first statement made by Guinean government on the matter, carried out at the request of the attorneys of Vladimir Kokorev, his wife Yulia and their son Igor (member of Spanish Law Bar Association). All three members of the family have been held in detention in Las Palmas for seven months, on the orders of Judge Ana Isabel de Vega Serrano, so far without any official charges or possibility of bail, in a case that has been declared secret since 2013.

The motion, filed by attorney José Choclán at the beginning of March, contains copies of official payment orders and receipts made by the Treasury of Equatorial Guinea to Kalunga Company, on the accounts of Banco Santader on Franchy Roca, Las Palmas.

The General Prosecutor Office of Malabo stated, on February 12 2016: “The Republic of Equatorial Guinea maintained commercial relationships with Kalunga, for the supply of certain transportation equipment, such as the sale of transportation vessels and other equipment.”

The Public Office of the African state also confirms that “all payments were made by the state” for “management and sale of different products and services related to sea and land transportation”. The total amount of Kalunga’s invoices to Guinean Government is more than €20 million.

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Dismissal of precautionary measures

Vladimir Kokorev’s defence requested the judge to dismiss the precautionary measures, the provisional prison and dismissal of the case on the grounds of lack of “any criminal activity whatsoever”.

The case started in 2008, with a writ filed by Spanish NGO Asociacion ProDerechos Humanos, subsidized by George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, presented before Audiencia Nacional of Madrid in relation to possible charges of corruption and money laundering related to Equatorial Guinea.

The Judge Baltazar Garzón refused to admit the case and sent it to Las Palmas, as it was the city where the transfers from the now extinct Bank Riggs were received on the accounts of Banco Santander.

The financial operations, consisting of payments made by Petroleos de Guinea to Kalunga Company for services rendered to Guinean Government, came to light in 2003 thanks to an investigation carried out by a sub-commission of US Senate related to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks.

In 2005, the anti-corruption prosecutor of Las Palmas, Luis del Río Montesdeoca, interviewed Vladimir Kokorev on bequest of compliance department of Banco de España (SEPBLANC). The businessman denied any wrongdoing and the case had been reportedly dismissed.

In his writ, José Choclán states that the operations between Kalunga and the Malabo Administration are “innocuous” and as such, “cannot be defined as money laundering”.

The attorney also explains that the US Senate Commission has mistakenly asserted that Kalunga was a Guinean company, while “in fact, it was a Panamanian company” and that “neither Mr. Obiang, nor any of his family members had any stake, either directly or indirectly, in the shares of Kalunga”.

A 'misdirected suspicion'

During the investigation of Kalunga, the sub-committee of US Senate requested Banco Santander to provide it with the names of the owners of the company, but the Spanish entity refused to supply any information, alleging secrecy if bank operations. “This lack of collaboration from Santander fueled the suspicion that the company might have belonged to Obiang,” states José Choclán. “If the information had been provided as per request, these proceedings simply would have not commenced.”

The defence further asserts that there is no “evidence of the crime”, and only “a confirmation of transfers made to Kalunga, a maritime company operating in Africa”.

It is yet to be seen how Judge Ana Isabel de Vega Serrano will respond to the motion. In her extradition request to Panamanian authorities (Kokorev was extradited to the Canary Islands from Panama in 2015), the judge points out that the family members were “managers or officers of several companies, used as a smokescreen to distribute moneys coming from the Petroleo account of Equatorial Guinea in Riggs Bank,” and accuses the family of creating “a network of companies” to acquire real estate in Spain.

Choclán disagrees with the aforementioned statement, on the basis that the real estate in Spain was owned exclusively by members of Kokorev family, and acquired from the proceeds of perfectly legal activities. He further asserts that money laundering cannot be alleged without an underlying criminal activity, which in this case would have been the misappropriation of public funds, and only if the purpose of alleged actions was “to abscond the supposedly misappropriated funds”.

He adds: “The victim of such misappropriation would be the Republic of Equatorial Guinea itself, who – as far as we know – has not received any offers to make such claim in the Court. Moreover, the Judge denied the personation of the Government of Equatorial Guinea in the case in 2009.”

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