Congo’s Rawbank Probe Puts Its Biggest Bank on Edge

DR CONGO · POWER PLAYERS

The Rawbank probe in the Democratic Republic of Congo has placed the billionaire Rawji family, owners of the country’s biggest bank, under a corruption inquiry that prosecutors themselves stress has established no offence and carries a full presumption of innocence.

What the Rawbank probe covers

Firmin Mvonde, the prosecutor general at Congo’s Court of Cassation, notified the migration directorate on June 20 of a travel ban on eight people, according to reporting by specialist outlet Billionaires.Africa. They include Mustafa Rawji, Rawbank’s chief executive, three of his relatives – Mazhar, Uzair and Zain Rawji – and Jules Alingete, the former head of the state financial inspectorate.

The order was tied to a judicial investigation into presumed acts of corruption, forgery and money laundering. It followed a June 18 instruction from Guillaume Ngefa, the state minister for justice, covering the individuals named and companies in the Rawji Group, including Rawbank.

No charges have been laid, and the bank has not been accused of any proven wrongdoing. Neither Rawbank nor the individuals named responded publicly when the travel ban was first reported.

A prosecutor narrows his own case

In a communiqué dated July 4, Mvonde publicly narrowed the inquiry’s scope. Its only aim, he said, is to establish whether any criminal liability arises, and the travel ban was a temporary measure to keep those named available to investigators, not a finding of guilt.

He added that the case remains at an early stage, that no evidence has established anyone’s criminal responsibility, and that the presumption of innocence applies in full. The travel ban has since been lifted.

Some of the allegations, the prosecutor noted, were already examined in earlier judicial proceedings that ended in dismissals.

Old claims and a strange twist

The substance of the accusations traces back several years. Congolese reporting centres on commissions allegedly paid by Rawji Group companies, claims that surfaced between 2023 and 2024 around a tax dispute involving Rawbank.

The case has also taken a contested turn. Several Congolese outlets allege the justice minister was misled into ordering the inquiry by a Cameroonian con man posing as a UN official, who claimed Rawbank faced American sanctions – reports that have not been independently verified.

Ngefa’s office issued a formal right of reply rejecting those articles, saying they presented unestablished claims as fact. The episode has left Kinshasa’s political and banking circles trading theories about who wanted the inquiry, and why.

Why Rawbank matters beyond Congo

Founded in 2002 by a family whose commercial presence in Congo stretches back more than a century, Rawbank is the country’s biggest lender. It holds more than $6.6 billion in assets, earned a record net banking income of about $682 million, and serves over 500,000 clients, per Billionaires.Africa.

Its reach extends into the state’s own finances. Rawbank acted as a national anchor in April when Kinshasa raised its first-ever Eurobond, the landmark issue that opened international capital markets to the country.

That is why local commentators warn that even an inquiry that leads nowhere could unsettle confidence in Congo’s financial signature. A brief weekend outage at a Rawbank cash machine in Kinshasa’s Limete district was enough to feed rumours before normal service resumed.

What investors should watch

The inquiry is open but, by the prosecutor’s own account, without established offences, and the travel restrictions have been withdrawn. Whether it produces charges or fades like the earlier complaints it partly revisits is now the question hanging over central Africa’s most powerful business family.

The irony is not lost in Kinshasa: Alingete, for years the public face of Congo’s anti-corruption drive as inspector-general of finance, is himself among those under investigation. The Panama Papers leak earlier documented the family’s offshore structures – holdings that are legal and imply no wrongdoing, but that critics say make the group’s affairs hard to trace.

For the foreign investors who bought Congo’s debut Eurobond, the probe is a first test of how the country treats the institutions underpinning its new market access. The next move rests with the prosecutor.

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