Special report · September 2026
Money that moved
These sums are reported by inspectors, companies or journalists. They are not a court-certified theft ledger.
IGF gap on the 15 per cent state-share sale (about US$154 million value versus US$33.44 million paid).
Zijin / Jinxiang / Manono Lithium SAS / Zijin / Jinxiang / Manono Lithium SAS “humanitarian” pledge, treated in documents as separate from the 61 per cent acquisition price, routed via NGO Le Bouclier / Jean-David E’Ngazi.
ICC penalty against Célestin Kibeya Kabemba / Cominière SA, 10 March 2025, for disobeying emergency orders — the only hard tribunal number in this file.
Cong Maohuai (“Simon Cong”) / Dathomir / intermediary permit-carousel proceeds, as estimated in Global Witness / ZAM reporting.
Cong Maohuai (“Simon Cong”) / Dathomir share-purchase escrow at Rawbank under Me Christian Lukusa / Momentum Attorneys / Lukusa. “Missing” is disputed; bank extracts in 2024 still showed just over US$20 million.
AVZ cash to Cong Maohuai (“Simon Cong”) / Dathomir plus share consideration; Loando share packets reported in the same investigations.
| Sum | What the public record says |
|---|---|
| US$120.7 million | IGF gap on the 15 per cent state-share sale (about US$154 million value versus US$33.44 million paid). |
| US$70 million | Zijin / Manono Lithium “humanitarian” pledge, treated in documents as separate from the 61 per cent acquisition price, routed via Le Bouclier. |
| €39.1 million + interest | ICC penalty against Cominière, 10 March 2025, for disobeying emergency orders — the only hard tribunal number in this file. |
| about US$28 million | Dathomir / intermediary permit-carousel proceeds, as estimated in Global Witness / ZAM reporting. |
| US$20 million | Dathomir share-purchase escrow at Rawbank under Momentum / Lukusa. “Missing” is disputed; bank extracts in 2024 still showed just over US$20 million. |
| US$6 million+ | AVZ cash to Dathomir plus share consideration; Loando share packets reported in the same investigations. |
The US$20 million accusation against Me Christian Lukusa
This is a published accusation and a published denial. It is not a conviction, and it is not the same as a minister stealing the mining licence.
On 30 September 2024 the firm Matadi Nenga & Associés, acting for AVZI, wrote to the procureur général at the Cour d’appel of Kinshasa/Gombe (letter MF/MA/185/2024). It accused Maître Me Christian Lukusa / Momentum Attorneys Kantumunda — bars of Haut-Katanga and Kinshasa-Matete, founder of Me Christian Lukusa / Momentum Attorneys Attorneys — of abus de confiance, faux en écriture and usage de faux over a US$20 million Rawbank escrow. EcoNews RDC headlined on 14 October 2024 that AVZI’s lawyer had “vanished into thin air with 20 million USD”. The complaint says: after Cong Maohuai (“Simon Cong”) / Dathomir returned US$20 million on 16 August 2021, Lukusa had AVZI ask the Tribunal de commerce of Kinshasa-Gombe to appoint Me Christian Lukusa / Momentum Attorneys as séquestre (order of 22 September 2021, piece 0757/2021); on 4 October 2021 he sent AVZ a Rawbank RIB; he was the only person authorised to move the account.
Statements Lukusa later produced still showed money on paper: about US$20,000,993 on 16 November 2022 and about US$20,036,427 on 14 March 2024, in the name of Me Christian Lukusa / Momentum Attorneys Attorneys. Resource Matters lists “missing $20 million” as a red flag. AfroNews24 (7–8 June 2026) reports that neither Lukusa nor Rawbank will now confirm the funds are still there; they cite professional secrecy and bank secrecy.
Lukusa’s right of reply on Mines.cd, 20 October 2024, calls the charge a defamatory cabal and an internet tribunal. He says he has acted on client instructions since taking the oath in 2006, that Matadi wanted his AVZ mandate, and that AVZ’s DRC managers needed a scapegoat after the licence failed. He has not, in anything located here, been convicted. 7sur7 (31 January 2025) later aired an interview in which he discussed AVZ payments and the licence fight — a media appearance, not a court finding.
The twenty million sat in a Kinshasa commercial-court escrow after AVZ bought Cong Maohuai (“Simon Cong”) / Dathomir shares and Cong Maohuai (“Simon Cong”) / Dathomir fought the deal. That is a private-party fight with a lawyer in the middle. It has not been shown, in anything reviewed here, to be a ministerial pocketing of the licence price. Lukusa produced Rawbank statements still showing just over US$20 million in March 2024. Opposing lawyers alleged he vanished with control of the account.
The seventy million is often mis-described as the price of Zijin / Jinxiang / Manono Lithium SAS’s 61 per cent in Zijin / Jinxiang / Manono Lithium SAS. Congolese reporting in 2026 is careful: US$33.44 million attaches to the 15 per cent Célestin Kibeya Kabemba / Cominière SA slice; the seventy million is a separate humanitarian contribution via NGO NGO Le Bouclier / Jean-David E’Ngazi. Live questions: how much reached victims in the east, why an NGO tied to a Célestin Kibeya Kabemba / Cominière SA director handled it, and where any shortfall sits.
Who has died? Public sources to September 2026 show Antoinette N’Samba Kalambayi alive — deputy, posts into late 2025 and 2026 — and Guy Loando Mboyo alive in cabinet. Other deceased women named Antoinette in Central Africa are not this minister.