Corruption

Mobutu Sese Seko ruled the DROC, which he renamed Zaire, from 1965 to 1997. A relative explained how the government illicitly collected revenue: “Mobutu would ask one of us to go to the bank and take out a million. We’d go to an intermediary and tell him to get five million. He would go to the bank with Mobutu’s authority, and take out ten. Mobutu got one, and we took the other nine.” Mobutu institutionalized corruption to prevent political rivals from challenging his control, leading to an economic collapse in 1996. Mobutu allegedly stole up to US$4 to US$5 billion while in office; in July 2009, a Swiss court determined that the statute of limitations had run out on an international asset recovery case of about $6.7 million of deposits of Mobutu’s in a Swiss bank, and therefore the assets should be returned to Mobutu’s family.

President Joseph Kabila established the Commission of Repression of Economic Crimes upon his ascension to power in 2001.