Exclusive: The article which cost the life of Guy André Kieffer

Exclusive: The article which cost  the life of Guy André Kieffer

This article appeared on November 25, 2002 on abidjan.net and was first published at the time by Fraternité-Matin. This newspaper was the one which, for the first time, evoked the scandalous Armajaro speculation. The son of Dominique Ouattara is today the head of the Africa division.


Who had interest to eliminate Guy André Kieffer?
According to a source transmitted on Thursday evening, October 24, 2002, a British trading company, recently established in Ghana and Ivory Coast: Armajaro, handed in recent weeks, a large sum to a group of people to undertake a destabilization of Côte d'Ivoire. The sum would be at least US $ 50 million, or roughly 30 billion CFA francs. This information, which has been validated with cocoa traders, international bankers, financial and political sources close to the radical americain business community, gives a plausible explanation, very likely, and highly likely, on the origin of the main source of funding for the rebellion army of the North started in edSeptember 2002.

This information highlights the real objectives pursued by the authors who funded the rebels led by Soro Guillaume and very close to Alassane Ouattara; It allows to explain partially, to understand and to connect a series of events that have marked several months the economic life of Côte d'Ivoire and especially in the key of the cocoa sector.

Armajaro and AIG Fund: financiers of the destabilization

Armajaro: this trading company, with offices in London, but whose head office is based in a tax haven - the British Virgin Islands - is led by Anthony Ward. The past year, the British trader was one of the major suppliers of cocoa from the US food group ADM, a company present in Côte d'Ivoire whose interests are very closely related to Sifca’s, Sifca Coop and Anaproci Inc.

Armajaro has an accreditation of exporter of cocoa in Côte d'Ivoire since little time


Anthony Ward
The Ivorian Armajaro subsidiary is partner with Daniel Usher who is close to Georges Ouegnin, The latest has been the interface between Anthony Ward and Houphouët-Boigny in the war of the cocoa in 1988 - 1991. Daniel Usher is also very close to Ali Anjani, a trader of sugar, himself close to Victor Nembelissini who was, at the time working at Equator Bank financing. Daniel Usher and Victor Nembelissini are very close to Alassane Ouattara and Yves Lamblin, although relations between the two men are marked by a violent antagonism. In Ghana, Armajaro is led by Steven White, a British financial expert of specialist investment funds of contents management first on the futures markets and financial packages involving off-shore financial companies.

The bulk of the funding for the rebels transited by Armajaro Ghanaian industry. Several transfers of funds from London, of the order of 1,250 million dollars (820 million CFA francs) each time, have been identified by specialized Services, these last weeks. Some of these transfers in cash have been operated and conveyed between London and Accra by Mr. Maignan, a French businessman who, in the recent past, was the man of confidence in the financial operations of several leaders of the PDCI.

Armajaro was founded by the elders of Phibro (Philip Brothers), five years ago. Over the past four years, Amajaro was several times involved in "bottlenecks to market" on the futures market in London in association with several pension funds (AIG Fund, Tiger Fund of American financier George Soros close to Victor Nembelissini and Alassane Ouattara, African Management Fund, a diversified investment in part by the South African Absa Bank Fund), led by Paul Martin, a friend of Frank Kennedy of Equator Bank and VictorNembelissini). Anthony Ward is the cocoa’s advisor of Mama Ndiaye of AIG Fund .

The founders of Armajaro are not unknown in Côte d'Ivoire

They were major players in the war of the cocoa in 1990. At this time, to limit the output of cocoa from Côte d'Ivoire, Anthony Ward and Derek Chambers did not hesitate to finance problems in region Krou. Anthony Ward, as well as Derek Chambers have an important network in the Ivorian political world, including the PDCI, and ties with several leaders of the RDR.

These close ties are knotted in the war of the cocoa and have grown with the issue of regulations of the cocoa between Côte d'Ivoire and Phibro in the early ninety. The two men maintain close relations with Georges Ouegnin, who has been their go between with the Ivorian era political authorities, and with Daniel Usher, they have funded (SICC) and with which Anthony Ward is associated with early this year to install Amajaro in Côte d'Ivoire.

A few years ago, these same traders, in the same structure (Phibro) had actively participated in the planing of the financial side of the coup against Allende Salvador in Chile. This participation, coupled with Phibro positions on the futures markets of copper (LME) in London and New York (Comex), had allowed them to achieve added value estimated at US $ 14 billion. Before being trader in Phibro, Anthony Ward has belonged to MI 5, the British secret service.


Mobutu Sese Seko ex président du Zaïre

Some ex-traders Phibro metals have been, in recent times, heavily involved in operations of destabilization in the former Zaire, for the control of the production of coltran, a strategic metal alloy. This participation has been highlighted in a report of the United Nations on the plunder of the mineral wealth of the Democratic Congo. (See also "Du Zaire de Mobutu Au Congo de Kabila "). Part of the funding for these operations has passed through South African banks Absa and Equator. More recently members of this team of traders, which some have joined the US broker Refco, in association with AIG Fund, participated in two attempts of destabilization of the President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. The reason, this time, was oil.

AIG Fund: This investment fund of American law specialist of the investments on the commodity futures markets, based in New York, is a subsidiary of the first U.S. insurer AIG. Its "investment fund" branch on the commodity markets is led by Senegalese Mama Ndiaye. This man is very connected to the Diouf families, (indirect shareholder of the American trading ADM, first world cocoa user group) and Wade, as well as several Ivorian personalities including the current Director of the CAA, Victor Nembelissini, close to Alassane Ouattara.

It is also a relative of Yves Lamblin, President of the Group Sifca, a group food in Côte d'Ivoire very indebted (130 billion CFA francs, even after integration of all of the debts of subsidiaries), is close to the cessation of payment. Mama Ndiaye is also close to the French banker Jean-Luc Lecorre, Director of African Merchant Bank, main creditor of Sifca, and active member of the Club Jean Jaurès.

These last three years, AIG Fund participated in association with Armajaro, in several operations of destabilization of the cocoa in New York and London futures markets. On the eve of the attacks of the World Trade Center in September 2001, AIG Fund controlled more than 150,000 tons of cocoa sector on the futures markets. This cocoa was transferred to Armajaro between November and December 2001. The bombing of the World Trade Center and the collapse of the stock market since nearly a year have resulted in very heavy losses for AIG Fund which is since seeking to catch up with these losses by intense participation on the cocoa futures markets.

The mechanism of funding for the rebels:

According to a US source, confirmed by corroborating information from the worlds of business, finance and internal sources in radical circles, Armajaro sent to the different actors of the rebellion a sum of the order of US $ 50 million, or 35 billion CFA francs.

This amount is corroborated by information that reached the Ivorian military intelligence, as well as the Malian services. Armajaro and his partners have sufficient funds and strong motives to initiate a major destabilization operation whose main victim is the State of Côte d'Ivoire. The mechanism is gradually set in place, and this, from the end of November 2001.

An evil Mechanism


Armajaro
The origin of the transaction, it was essentially a financial transaction with very high profitability, which the final objective was not destabilizing Côte d'Ivoire, but obtaining a significant gain on the cocoa futures markets and the resale of physical cocoa stocks stored in European ports. The need for a destabilization of Côte d'Ivoire imposed itself from July, when it became clear to the initiators of the operation cocoa, Armajaro and AIG Fund, that the management of their positions on the cocoa futures markets, from the end of June, required a shift to a higher dimension to save a potential gain in a range of 500 to 800 million US $, is 280 to 450 billion CFA francs.

The need for a destabilization proved indispensable after the burial of cocoa in Côte d'Ivoire reform became a fact while Botany and crop on the main campaign 2002/2003 forecasts in part foiled the results expected by the failure of the reform of the Ivory Coast cocoa sector. In July the expectations revealed a good main harvest in 2002/2003 (980,000 to 1 million tons). This forecast was based on a strong increase of fertilizers and phytosanitary products use in cocoa plantations by planters linked to a significant improvement of peasant income.

The chronology

The Amajaro operation began last November with the transfer of almost all of the cocoa of AIG Fund position to Armajaro. The remainder is transferred to ADM United States. From now on, Armajaro buys on the futures market nearly 650,000 tons of cocoa-paper which is a stock of 210,000 tons, or 5% of world supply of cocoa. Purchased between 750 and 900 pounds per ton, this cocoa position is valued at more than 1,400 pounds per ton, i.e. a gain of... 85% at the end of June 2002. The flight deck of the course on the futures market pushed cocoa users, grinders, to significantly reduce their rate of coverage (stock).

They enter the full season (October-December 2002) with minimum stocks. To obtain a maximum valuation of the stocks, then blocked by Armajaro until the end of November to reduce storage costs, the new Ivoirian cocoa harvest must arrive as late as possible on the international market. This delay must allow Amajaro to realize a capital gain of 500 to 800 million US $.

Barriers to lift

Patrick Achi, ex delegate général du Cacao
To fulfill this plan, Armajaro and AIG Fund operated in several stages. As early as last November, and then in December, Anthony Ward believes that reforming cocoa in Côte d'Ivoire is a major obstacle to its operation on the futures market. The reform has to be stopped. To achieve this end, three axes of intervention will be selected: an institutional axis via an intense lobbying with the World Bank and especially the IMF, which in theory has no jurisdiction in the agricultural sector and organization;

A "political" axis with interventions supported by various relay to the Minister of Ivorian finance Bohoun Bouabré and his collaborators, via Victor Nembelissini. Two secondary intervention axes are also retained for "break the reform" with the relay Patrick Achi, ex-delegate General of cocoa under both Guei and Emile Boga Doudou whose implicit function is to convince the wife of the President, Simone Gbagbo, that reform of the cocoa sector as it is organized will go against the interests of notables of FPI in her area of influence (part of the Akan region). A secondary relay passes by the former Prime Minister of General Guei, Seydou Diarra. The latter will intervene through his "small", Patrick Achi and Edouard Messou.

A local axis through local intermediaries in the sector of Ivorian cocoa as the Anaproci of Henri Amouzou, Sifca of Yves Lamblin, UNOC of Jacques Mangoua and the bankers of the cocoa, as Jean-Luc Lecorre of AMB-BIAO. This action also relies on people with direct access to the presidential couple as Guy-Alain Gauze, former Minister of raw of PDCI, or Illa Donwahi, CEO of Delbau, Maverick of the cocoa sector.

A meeting is held in Paris between representatives of Refco USA (Chicago, New York), Amajaro and André Souhma of ACE. At these two meetings are involved for the Ivorian Ministry of economy and finance, Oussou Kouassi, while Bohoun Bouabré receives the visit of the team of Refco at his hotel, the Marriott of Neuilly. The principle to stop the reform of the cocoa sector, so the term sales, is taken at that time. This decision is made unilaterally by the Minister of finance without reference to the President or the Prime Minister. This decision is followed for the Ivorian part by the transformation of the CAA into a Development Bank to fund producer cooperatives and to provide them a guaranteed insurance price edge fields.

The eviction, in February, of the Minister of Agriculture of the time, Alphonse Douati, and then his replacement by a relative of the Anaproci, makes possible the progress of the plan initiated by Armajaro and AIG Fund: a disorganization of the cocoa sector.

Systematically, the proposals from the Prime Minister are challenged. The establishment of institutions necessary for the implementation of the reform is delayed and when they manage to be installed, their content is changed to the example of the RCF. At the same time, Victor Nembelissini, which, until September 2001, while he was in the United States, was one of the most virulent critics of Ivorian economic policy completely in phase with Alassane Ouattara attacks where he condemned the FPI Management, arrives at the head of the CAA. He discovers all the interest that the structure, the CAA, can be drawn from the jeopardized reform of the cocoa sector and from an active participation in the operation launched by Armajaro. He takes contact therefore with Paul Martin of Absa and offers financing, to fund lost, to Sifca Coop and its satellites.

By proposing a system of guarantee of price based on the market of the cocoa options and by taking positions identical to those taken by Anthony Ward via Refco United States, the CAA is able to bail out partly based on network Sifca Coop, Henri Amouzou and the couple Sifca - Yves Lamblin and Mimran/Diouf ADM shareholders of ADM.

Henri Amouzou
To achieve this objective, it is necessary that the price of cocoa in Côte d'Ivoire is free and that a reform based on sales term which guarantee the transparency of prices to be abandoned. To obtain support from the farmers for this option, Victor Nembelissini does not hesitate to them assure them a near shinning monopoly in the domestic marketing of cocoa.

The Anaproci, the FDPCC, Henri Amouzou and San Kouao bite the hook, without necessarily seizing the real issues. Concordant elements suggest that the CAA, via off-shore funds controlled by the South African Absa Bank, took positions on the market of the cocoa options. These purchases of options on levels defined by Refco and AIG Fund gave certainty to the CAA to have nothing to reimburse to growers because of a price guarantee edge relatively low fields (650 francs cfa per kilo).

However, the CAA was assured to keep to its benefit all of the gains resulting from its positions on the market of the cocoa options. This construction gives rise to multiple meetings in New York between Bouhoun Bouabre, Zohore, Victor Nembelissini, Refco of Chicago, and ACE of André Souhma. This construction is reinforced by the choice "of experts" complacent World Bank, violently opposed to the principle of internal and external marketing of cocoa ordered by Côte d'Ivoire. At the same time, Anthony Ward and part of the leader staff of Amajaro increased encounters with Henri Amouzou of FDPCC, Anaproci and Sifca Coop to finalize a privileged supply circuit and convince them that the reform of the cocoa sector should stop.

The passage to the destabilization of the State. Logically, Amarajo’s financial transaction would have stop at this level. But Botany partly foiled this plan. As early as the end of June 2002, it became clear that the Ivorian main harvest would be at least equal to the previous, if not higher due to a strong increase of the use of fertilizers led by the rising prices of cocoa.

In this context, the portage by Armajaro and AIG Fund markets in term of a position of 650,000 tons was random and hopes for a rosy gain (500 to 800 million dollars) fading if the Ivorian cocoa was coming out in time and hour in October. As early as mid-July, Armajaro, internally, evoked the possibility of a sum of the order of 50 to 80 million dollars to "hold the market". At this time, several traders, and even recently Sucden, felt more than probable that Armajaro to "Save" $ 500 million would not hesitate to undertake a coup".

"The revolt of the “mutineers"

Anthony Ward and Mama Ndiaye networks have been put in action to identify fertile ground to a strong disturbance of Côte d'Ivoire cocoa output (as already experienced with the Krou people in the 1990s). The existence of the Ivorian army deserters in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mali, lined with a latent discontent of the populations of the North of Côte d'Ivoire against the central power, served as framework for the operation. Therefore, a policy covering (RDR) and protest (MPCI) has been used to hide the purely financial aims of Armajaro, AIG Fund and the CAA.

It is noted that the first week, the mutineers abandoned in fact the objective of a descent to Abidjan to redeploy to areas in the cocoa loop and cause disturbances known in the collection of cocoa in the main loop. This redeployment had virtually dry up the outputs of beans on San Pedro (15,000 tons a week, three times less than normal in such period). As a result, cocoa prices continue beyond 1,400 pounds per ton.

Especially, beans in the hands of Armajaro stocks are valued at their maximum by purchases from madly seekers grinders of beans for the preparation of Christmas and year-end holidays. That is why a $ 50 million investment generates value of the order of 500 to 800 million dollars.

In conclusion, if the gain is considerable - 500 to 800 million-, investment agreed by Armajaro and AIG Fund is to achieve gains. Between the costs of market entry, storage, margins on the futures markets and the financing, the initial is of the order of 2 to 2.5 billion dollars, or 1,300 billion cfa francs. The extent of the resources devoted to this imposes upon these financiers, an obligation of results.

No matter how a State is permanently destabilized, - it must be remembered that it took Chile five years to recover from a crisis of a year-.The operation initiated by Armajaro and AIG Fund is too advanced to be stopped. Understand the very violent attacks against the reform of the cocoa sector and personalities who defend it. It also includes the repeated threats which have been toward the few who can decrypt the current operation. This kind of manipulation, contrary to what one might think, requires that a very small number of people share the secret.


Bohoun Bouabré
More than 10 people in Armajaro, AIG Fund, Refco, have the complete elements of the puzzle. It is also clear that at the Ivoirian level, Victor Nembelissini disposed of almost all cards and issues. Indeed, he had planned a definitive departure for the United States at the end of December of this year. For the rest, some tidbits of information on the real issue had to be broadcast to a number of Ivorian actors, who have been "paid" in crumbs but lacked the real purpose of the operation.

Thus, it is likely, without however having the certainty, that Finance Minister Bohoun Bouabré was involved in the operation on the basis of his greed, but the technical nature of the transaction excludes that he was put into the whole secret. Similarly, his Chief of staff is involved in the margin.

It is clear that Henri Amouzou was more used in this operation; the same is true of the Anaproci which got the role of destabilizing element, but who have not seen all of the issues in question. However, it is almost certain that ADM, at least shareholders related to the Diouf family and Mimran, and Yves Lamblin and his banker (Jean-Luc Lecorre) of African Merchant Bank were "introduced" to degrees that remain to be defined. The "political" actors close to the PDCI and to the RDR do not appear to be direct actors of this destabilization of Côte d'Ivoire.

They act more by opportunism of the circumstances than masters of the operation. The mutineers, at least for the men involved in the operations on the ground in Côte d'Ivoire, appear not to have disposed of all cards and appear more to have been handled than being actors designers. They took advantage of an important opportunity of funds without worrying or wonder about the real origin of the funds they got. Nevertheless, the initiators of the operation have indirectly played on favorable ground and or all has been done to put them forward in a way that the tree hides the forest.

The subtlety of the operation mounted by Armajaro and AIG Fund is such that the actors and indirect support were given at the beginning of the operation in December a margin of considerable autonomy. It was great, that their actions on the ground in Côte d'Ivoire were perfectly in phase with the financial objectives of Armajaro and AIG Fund.

It is also clear that foreign Governments including a segment of the US Administration was made aware of a part of the operation. Just know that during previous operations of destabilization of a State, AIG Fund requested a blank check and made part of its objectives, to the US Administration. According to the same source, the Ambassador of France in Côte d'Ivoire was partially informed of the financial component of this operation at the beginning of last week.

Guy André Kieffer