Sentry Report 2023: Billion Dollar Scam in South Sudan Uncovered in New Report

 

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A new report by The Sentry unearthed loan deals between local companies in south Sudan and a regional bank with the support from the government, the report indicated red flags including illicit business malpractices, bribery, trade based money laundering and tax evasion. 

The report also indicated how Laws and Sanctions were breached in South Sudan, it also indicated how powerful individuals in the government benefits and manipulate businesses worth over hundred million dollars. 

Here is an excerpt takilen from The Report:  "Crude Dealings: How Oil-Backed Loans Raise Red Flags for Illegal Activity in South Sudan” spotlights a 2018 deal in which South Sudan’s Trinity Energy Limited entered into a trade finance facility with Cairo-based African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) for a series of $30 million loans to purchase diesel and gasoline to sell to the South Sudan market." -Sentry report. 

“As part of the deal, the government of South Sudan committed to award cargoes of crude oil to Trinity Energy. The deal skirted legislation on oversight, transparency, and competition and facilitated off-book government spending,” The Sentry said. “The loan deal also perpetuated a damaging reliance on future oil production to finance current spending, a pattern that has locked the country in a spiral of debt. Oil is South Sudan’s most valuable resource and the source of the vast majority of its national wealth. This deal contributed to mortgaging the future prosperity of the country and its citizens.” -Sentry report. 

Arrangements between government and regional bank. 

“The arrangement gave Trinity Energy—a company that had never before traded crude—privileged access to the market for South Sudan’s oil. The company was awarded more than 40% of crude cargoes contracted by the government from June 2018 to May 2019,” the report highlighted. “The government paid a premium to Trinity Energy for the sale of fuel to the South Sudanese army. Trinity Energy was given a dominant role in the market for petroleum and diesel imports, a position that facilitated its secretive provision of fuel to the South Sudanese army at a time when government forces were involved in ongoing civil conflict. South Sudan’s army has been accused of war crimes and human rights abuses.” -Sentry report. 

Recommendations From The Sentry Report 

“Kenya and Uganda should investigate and prosecute illicit money flows. Authorities in Kenya and Uganda should investigate the transactions identified in this report in which money sent to company accounts in the two countries raised red flags for trade-based money laundering,” The Sentry urged. “South Sudan should ratify and implement the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption, which South Sudan signed in 2013. The country should also implement Chapter IV of the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) to address the crippling cycle of debt, economic mismanagement, and corruption undermining economic prosperity and fuelling conflict."

The Sentry is an investigative and policy organization that seeks to disable multinational predatory networks that benefit from violent conflict, repression, and kleptocracy.