Politically-exposed Africans and their friends invested a total of $26 million in Québec’s real estate since 2000. We uncovered investments by a dozen individuals from Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Cameroon, Gabon, Senegal and Algeria.
The buildings and mansions they’ve purchased were generally well above their official means and often bought without mortgage.
A number of the real estate buyers had been involved in corruption allegations but this didn’t raise any eyebrows from the Canadian government, banks or real estate providers.
Hugo Joncas, from the Journal de Montréal, and myself did this investigation which was published in French in the Journal de Montréal and Le Monde Afrique, as well as in English in African Arguments.
The Canadian police started an investigation following our findings. Below is a map I made with the properties (slightly moved for privacy).
