US charges two Congolese with theft, sale of free malaria drugs

The United States government has charged two Congolese nationals in New York with diverting donor funded anti-malarial drugs for resale in the black market in East Africa including Tanzania.

This marks an unprecedented move by the US to charge citizens of a beneficiary country with fraud over its donor funding activities in the region.

Rene Djessa and Daniel Ohoyo, who both remain at large, have been charged with conspiracy and theft of US government property in a scheme to divert tens of thousands of doses of anti-malarial medication.

The drugs were funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) under the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI).

Geoffrey Berman, a US attorney in New York, said that while hundreds of thousands of people died of malaria—many of whom could have been saved with the very medicines these defendants stole put their greed ahead of their humanity.

“They stole life-saving anti-malarial medicines and sold them on the black market. This crime is outrageous, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that these defendants are held to account for their actions,” Mr Berman said.

According to the indictment, in 2011, USAid workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo discovered significant quantities of PMI-funded anti-malarial drugs, including Coartem, being sold in various markets in the capital Kinshasa.

On further investigation, USAid found that some of the Coartem was also being distributed to markets in other sub-Saharan African countries, including Malawi, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Benin, Zimbabwe, and Ghana.

Mr Djessa, Mr Ohoyo, and other suspects are said to have been operating a scheme that diverted the PMI-funded Coartem for resale on the wholesale black market in Kinshasa and neighbouring Congo’s capital Brazzaville.

Between January 2013 and September 2015, agents from the USAid Office of Inspector General, conducted numerous undercover purchases of the donor-funded drugs from Mr Djessa and Mr Ohoyo in Kinshasa, and from a co-conspirator in Brazzaville, the indictment states.

“The undercover officers posed as businessmen who wanted to purchase large quantities of Coartem on the black market for resale to their purported clients. An undercover officer initially purchased Coartem from a co-conspirator in Brazzaville, who, in February 2013, introduced them to Mr Ohoyo as a supplier in Kinshasa.

“Approximately one year later, after the undercover officer had made several additional purchases of PMI-funded Coartem from Mr Ohoyo, the latter introduced the undercover agent to Mr Djessa as Mr Ohoyo’s supplier,” the indictment reads.

Mr Djessa is said to have claimed that he was the main supplier of Coartem in the DRC, Congo, and Angola, and that he had a supplier in Tanzania. He reportedly told the undercover agent that he could supply as much Coartem as wanted.

Altogether, the undercover agents purchased almost 2,100 dispenser boxes of Coartem from Mr Djessa and Mr Ohoyo, for approximately $63,000, the indictment notes.

Ann Calvaresi Barr, the Inspector General of USAid said that the indictment showed not only how programmes to provide life-saving medications can be abused, but also USAid’s commitment to identifying and investigating the theft of US-funded health commodities and holding the offenders accountable.

Mr Djessa, 41, and Mr Ohoyo, 32, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to steal US government property, which carries a maximum five-year sentence, and one count of theft of US government property, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.