Brother of Senegal’s president resigns as head of the country’s savings fund over alleged corruption

The brother of Senegal’s president has resigned as head of a state-run savings fund after he named him in a report over alleged corruption.  

The report alleged that Aliou Sall was secretly paid $250,000 (£196,300) in 2014 by a gas company that sold its shares in Senegalese gas fields to BP.  Sall has denied the claims, calling them part of a campaign to make him “public enemy number one”. Senegal’s attorney general said an investigation had been launched.

“This unfortunate controversy is based only on untruths,” Sall said in a statement. He had directed Senegal’s Caisse des Depots et Consignations since September 2017.  

In 2012, Senegal’s then government awarded exploration rights for two offshore oil and gas fields to Petro-Tim. The firm was part of Timis Corporation, run by Romanian-Australian business tycoon Frank Timis.  The company had no previous experience of oil and gas exploration and an investigation – ordered by President Macky Sall after he took office – concluded that Petro-Tim should lose its concessions.

According to a BBC investigation, his brother was later hired by Timis Corporation and paid $1.5m (£1.18m) over five years. Aliou Sall was also promised shares in some of Timis’s companies which were worth $3m.