African leaders gave Chirac and Villepin 'suitcases stuffed with cash,' to fund campaign

Paris, Sept 12 (ANI): Former French President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, received suitcases stuffed with millions of francs on a regular basis from some African leaders, it has emerged.

Robert Bourgi, a lawyer who advised Chirac and Villepin before switching loyalties to work with President Nicolas Sarkozy, claimed that he shuttled between African countries including Burkina Faso, Congo, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Senegal for over 25 years to bring up to 15 million francs in cash.

During an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper, Bourgi claimed he transported 'tens of millions of francs' each year, which was used to fund Chirac's political campaigns.

"I saw Chirac and Villepin count the money in front of me," the Telegraph quoted Bourgi, as saying.

He said he regularly passed on bank notes from five African presidents- Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal; Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso, Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast, Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Congo and Omar Bongo of Gabon, whom Bourgi called "Papa".

Bourgi claimed that together they contributed 6.2 million pounds to Chirac's successful 2002 presidential campaign.

A sixth leader, President Obiang N'Guema of Equatorial Guinea allegedly was the last member to join the cash donor club.

Villepin, however, denied the accusations telling the newspaper "this is all just smokescreens," to deflect attention from allegations that Sarkozy was involved in illegal party funding via kickbacks from arms sales. ANI)