MORE THAN a decade ago the Republic of Congo, an oil-producing country of 6m people in central Africa, wanted to improve its decrepit health-care infrastructure. It paid €491m (then worth $658m) to a Brazilian company called Asperbras to build a dozen new hospitals.

Ten years on, the country could use them. The already dire state of public health in central Africa has been made worse by the mpox epidemic. The disease has killed more than 1,000 people and infected tens of thousands across the region this year alone, including several in Congo.

Yet of the 12 hospitals that were promised, only four have been built, according to Publiez Ce Que Vous Payez-Congo, a watchdog. (Asperbras says its companies conducted their business in accordance with the law and their contractual obligations.) Meanwhile, much of the money has disappeared. Where did it go?

Legal proceedings in America, France and Portugal allege that a good chunk may have ended up in the pockets of some of the president’s relatives. Denis Sassou Nguesso has ruled the country since 1979, with a brief gap between 1992 and 1997. Court documents offer a glimpse into the mechanisms by which some of his family members allegedly enriched themselves at the expense of fellow Congolese.

America’s Department of Justice (DOJ) is trying to seize a flat in Trump International Hotel and Tower in Manhattan. In court filings in New York, prosecutors allege that José Veiga, a Portuguese fixer for Congo’s president, bought the flat for $7.1m on behalf of Claudia Sassou Nguesso, one of the president’s daughters. In a forfeiture complaint prosecutors allege that the money used to buy it was diverted from the hospital-building programme.

Ms Sassou Nguesso did not reply to requests for comment. Members of her entourage have previously described allegations that she has a flat in New York as “fake”. Lawyers for Mr Veiga declined to comment, but a company he manages is contesting the DOJ’s attempt to seize the property in Trump Tower, arguing that prosecutors have failed to prove that it was bought for Claudia using embezzled funds. Asperbras says it has always acted in accordance with the law and that it severed ties with Mr Veiga upon learning of the allegations against him.

The flat in Trump Tower is not the only property to have attracted suspicion. In 2022 authorities in America seized an apartment in Miami, worth $2.8m, from Denis-Christel Sassou Nguesso, Claudia’s brother. The same year French authorities seized a mansion from him but said he had not been indicted. (Mr Sassou Nguesso did not reply to a request for comment.) French magistrates are also probing property purchases by other family members.

In total, investigators have identified at least $200m of suspect funds, not all of it related to the hospital programme. Recovering the money could, in theory, make a difference to Congo’s public infrastructure. Yet that moment seems a long way off. Investigations in France and Portugal have dragged on for more than ten years without resulting in charges being filed. In July Portuguese authorities auctioned a villa in Lisbon worth $12m that they allege was bought for a high-ranking Congolese official. The money will be held in trust until the case is concluded.

Proceedings in America should be speedier. However, even if the DOJ is successful, returning the money might be tricky as long as Denis Sassou Nguesso remains in power. As a former FBI agent who worked on the case puts it, repatriating stolen assets has not been easy in cases where “dad was still president”.