Black Cube in the Democratic Republic of Congo
| Black Cube in the Democratic Republic of Congo
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Alleged intelligence-gathering operation against political opponents ("Operation Coltan"), plus 2022 sting allegations |
| Date | Late 2015 – 2016 (Operation Coltan, as reported in 2019); February–July 2022 (stings reported in 2022) |
| Location | Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo |
| Participants | Black Cube, including director Dan Zorella (according to Uvda) |
| Organisers | Joseph Kabila, then president (as alleged by Uvda) |
| Victims | Opponents of then-president Joseph Kabila, people he regarded as traitors, and NGO officials (2015–16, as alleged) |
| Outcome | Black Cube denied any activity in the DRC and sued Uvda for libel in London, then dropped the suit in November 2020 and was ordered to pay £350,000 in costs |
| Other | Black Cube's involvement in the 2022 stings on Tshisekedi's associates is unproven. OCCRP found no evidence of it |
Black Cube in the Democratic Republic of Congo covers allegations that the Israeli private intelligence firm Black Cube spied on opponents of President Joseph Kabila in 2015–16 in an operation called "Operation Coltan". The allegations were broadcast by the Israeli programme Uvda in June 2019, and Black Cube denies them. The page also covers 2022 reporting on covert stings against associates of President Félix Tshisekedi, in which Black Cube was named only as a possibility.
The main allegations come from an investigation by Ilana Dayan's Uvda programme on Israel's Channel 12. It was broadcast on 6 June 2019 and reported internationally by RFI and France 24.[1][2][3] Black Cube denied working in the country and sued the programme in London. It dropped the suit in November 2020.[4][5]
Background
Joseph Kabila was president of the DRC from 2001 to 2019.[6] By the mid-2010s he faced growing domestic and international pressure over plans to stay in office beyond his constitutional term. In 2016, Uvda noted, seventeen opponents of the government were shot dead during demonstrations.[2] Black Cube was founded in Tel Aviv in 2011 by Dan Zorella and Avi Yanus. Most of its staff are veterans of Israeli intelligence: the Mossad, the Shin Bet and military intelligence units such as Unit 8200.[2][7]
Operation Coltan (2015–16)
- Zorella met Kabila in Kinshasa in late 2015, in the first of a series of increasingly regular meetings that gave rise to "Operation Coltan", a project to gather intelligence on the president's many critics.
- About ten Black Cube agents turned a floor of a large Kinshasa hotel into the headquarters of an unofficial intelligence service.
- A Black Cube agent also tried, apparently without success, to investigate the relationship between Kabila and the Israeli businessman Dan Gertler.
An anonymous former Black Cube employee told the programme:
"Kabila wanted to know everything that was going on at opposition meetings. He wanted to know who was there and who criticised him. He wanted to know if any of his relatives betrayed him in those meetings – and there were indeed such traitors."[1]
RFI reported that the targets included opposition figures, people regarded as traitors and NGO officials, and dated the work to 2015–16.[4] The public reports do not detail the methods used.
The same Uvda series also alleged that Idan Ofer hired Black Cube in 2014 to investigate the then finance minister Yair Lapid.[3]
Reactions
Congolese opposition figures responded with outrage.[8]
- Ève Bazaiba, secretary general of the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC), called it "scandalous". She said Kabila had cared more about keeping his regime in power than about the security of the population.[8]
- Olivier Kamitatu, a former minister under Kabila who went into opposition in September 2015, said such methods had led to "a bloody repression these past three years" and that "the Democratic Republic of Kabila's time was democratic in name only".[8]
- Many in the DRC hoped that Black Cube's libel action against Uvda would bring out more detail.[8]
- Yossi Mekelberg of Chatham House told France 24: "In Israel we now have a lot of twenty-first century mercenaries, as it were". He pointed to demand for surveillance technology "from very nasty dictatorial regimes".[1]
Black Cube's response
Black Cube did not comment on the DRC allegations at first.[2] On 10 June 2019 an unsigned statement with no logo or contact details circulated in Kinshasa and on Congolese social media. It was passed to the press partly by people close to Kabila. Black Cube issued its official statement about ten hours later.[4]
- The official statement denied all the "publications" about the DRC. It said the firm does "not work with governments", least of all to monitor "opposition activists" or to tap phones, and called the story "a fantasy worthy of a spy novel". It added that Uvda had produced "no proof" of any activity in the country.
- RFI found that the Kinshasa version contained additional passages. These spoke of "organisations" seeking to undermine "certain authorities of the DRC" and threatened anyone who linked Black Cube to the DRC.[4]
Black Cube filed a £15 million libel claim in the High Court in London against Uvda and Dayan.[1][3] On 16 November 2020 it filed to discontinue the claim. The next day, Mr Justice Saini ordered BC Strategy UK Limited to make an interim payment of £350,000 towards the costs of Keshet Broadcasting and five journalists. The firm said it had been advised that, because its income had risen after the broadcast, its claim of financial loss had "fallen away". It maintained that the broadcast was "wrong and seriously misleading".[5]
2022: stings on Tshisekedi's associates
In October 2022 Africa Intelligence reported a series of covert stings against people who had clashed with Dan Gertler. Gertler, an Israeli mining magnate, had been close to Kabila and was under US sanctions.[9][6]
| # | Date | Target | Cover and outcome | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 February 2022 | Didier Budimbu, minister of hydrocarbons | A dinner was arranged in Brussels by "Mark Lebedev", posing as an associate of a Russian businessman. Budimbu pulled out at the last minute | [6] |
| 2 | 9 April 2022 | Philippe Hababou Solomon, a Franco-Israeli broker advising Budimbu | A sting in Tel Aviv. Days later, on 13 April, Budimbu was questioned for 24 hours by the national intelligence agency (ANR), which played him a recording of the meeting | [6] |
| 3 | June–July 2022 | Vidiye Tshimanga, President Tshisekedi's strategic adviser | A fake investor, "Petr Salomon", posing as an associate of CK Hutchison, held a Zoom call and then two secretly filmed meetings in London. Edited extracts were leaked. Tshimanga resigned and spent a week in pre-trial detention | [6][10] |
| 4 | 2022 | Three Israeli businessmen | Approached by other emissaries posing as investors | [9] |
Was Black Cube involved?
- No proof. Africa Intelligence reported that the ANR had no tangible proof of who was behind the stings. It favoured the Gertler hypothesis and did not rule out the use of Black Cube.[6]
- Denials. Black Cube told Africa Intelligence that it had "never worked" with Gertler or Kabila.[6] Through the London law firm Carter-Ruck, Gertler denied ever using or instructing Black Cube, directly or indirectly. He also denied using private investigators or knowing "Petr Salomon" or "Mark Lebedev".[6]
- Parinov. Africa Intelligence noted that Kirill Parinov, a former member of Black Cube's board with Russian and Israeli nationality, had held three companies registered in Kinshasa. One of them, Riverside Development, listed the same contact point in the Congolese register as Gertler's oil company Caprikat and as two firms the US Treasury regards as Gertler fronts. Gertler's lawyers said he did not know Parinov and had had no dealings with him.[6]
- OCCRP. In its own investigation of the Tshimanga recordings, OCCRP said its reporting "identified no evidence that Black Cube was involved in the surveillance in this instance".[10]
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Israeli '21st-century mercenaries' spied for DR Congo's Kabila, report says, France 24, 10 June 2019.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 RFI (correspondent Michel Paul), RDC: quand Joseph Kabila utilisait des anciens du Mossad contre l'opposition (DRC: when Joseph Kabila used Mossad veterans against the opposition), RFI, 9 June 2019.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 ToI Staff, Secretive Black Cube sues Israeli investigative journalist for $19 million, Times of Israel, 7 June 2019.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 RDC: le drôle de démenti de la société israélienne Black Cube (DRC: the strange denial of the Israeli firm Black Cube), RFI, 11 June 2019.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Owen Bowcott, Intelligence firm Black Cube ordered to pay £350,000 to Israeli TV show, The Guardian, 25 November 2020.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 Africa Intelligence (Olivier Liffran and Joan Tilouine), republished as RDC: « VidiyeGate »/Le mystérieux « Petr Salomon » alias Mark Lebedev: Gertler est-il l'exécutant des « opérations secrètes » qui ont ciblé Vidiye et D. Budimbu?, Congovirtuel, 21 October 2022.
- ↑ Hadas Magen, Black Cube - a "Mossad-style" business intelligence co, Globes, 2 April 2017.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 RDC: l'opposition alarmée par les révélations sur la surveillance sous Kabila (DRC: the opposition alarmed by revelations of surveillance under Kabila), RFI, 10 June 2019.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Olivier Liffran and Joan Tilouine, The covert operation that targeted Dan Gertler's enemies around Tshisekedi, Africa Intelligence, 17 October 2022 (subscription).
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Clément Fayol, Antoine Harari and Pete Jones, "I Will Take My Percentage": Congolese Presidential Adviser Caught on Tape Negotiating Corrupt Mineral Deal, OCCRP, 15 September 2022.