Latest development Jan 27, 2026
The Nanterre court stayed the TotalEnergies guarantee claim pending the criminal case.
The award
- Amount awarded
- Principal disputed. The claimant put the debt at more than €1.7B in September 2023.
- Current estimate
- About €2.2B claimed (July 2026)
- Award holder
- Commission Import Export SA (Commisimpex), majority-owned by Mohsen Hojeij
- Respondent
- Republic of Congo (with the Caisse Congolaise d’Amortissement)
- Forum
- ICC No. 9899 and No. 16257 · seat Paris
Challenges
Congo’s French set-aside actions failed, and the ICC tribunal dismissed its revision request on October 5, 2023. A related criminal investigation in Paris, opened in 2021, was widened to organized fraud and forgery in 2025.
Enforcement
France: bank seizures (2015). Diplomatic property was held immune (Cour de cassation, 2018). A Falcon 7X jet seized in June 2020 was sold in October 2023 for €7.1M. A garnishment against Egis failed (Versailles Court of Appeal, February 8, 2024), and the Nanterre court stayed a claim on a TotalEnergies guarantee pending the criminal case (January 27, 2026). United States: D.D.C. recognition (December 2015) and S.D.N.Y. orders (September 30, 2025). England and Belgium: recognized. The Cour de cassation allowed the seizure of a property linked to Congo’s delegation to UNESCO and exempted a payroll office (reported June 30, 2025).
Recovered to date
About €45M (claimant, September 2023)
Notes
The headline is the claimant’s total with compound interest, not the principal.