Corruption in The Gambia: French authorities investigating TotalEnergies’ Geneva-based subsidiary

Zurich. Lausanne, April 1, 2026

In a new report, Public Eye reveals that the offices of Totsa, the trading arm of oil giant TotalEnergies, were searched in Geneva in 2024 as part of a preliminary investigation by France’s National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) into suspected bribery in The Gambia. From 2004 to at least 2014, the French oil group was the supplier of a businessman close to the Gambian president who held a monopoly on petroleum imports. In 2018, that businessman was placed under US sanctions for financing Hezbollah and was convicted in 2024 for attempting to circumvent them.

At a glance:

For a decade, TotalEnergies maintained strong business ties with a figure close to the Gambian regime who is suspected of bribing the president.
The French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office has opened a preliminary investigation linked to the allegations.
As part of the case, Totsa’s offices in Geneva were searched in February 2024.

The Gambia, a small West African country enclaved into Senegal, produces no oil and relies entirely on imports for its supply. Thanks to his ties to the dictator Yahya Jammeh, accused of siphoning off nearly a billion dollars during his rule (1994–2017), the Belgian-Lebanese businessman Mohammad Bazzi established himself as the country’s exclusive importer of all petroleum products from 2004. At the time, his company, Euro African Group Limited (EAGL), was making a margin of 17% compared with the market price. It amounted to a financial drain for its main customer, The Gambia’s state-owned National Water and Electricity Company.

Bazzi sourced his products from TotalEnergies (then Total) and its Geneva-based trading subsidiary Totsa, which benefited for more than a decade from this monopoly. Public Eye’s investigation charts «this strong partnership […] built over several years of close cooperation» – as the businessman described it in a letter to President Jammeh in 2010. In 2017, a Commission of Inquiry was set up by the new government to identify wrongdoing by Jammeh and those around him. It concluded that Bazzi’s exclusive mandate amounted to «a favoured status» that had been «sustained by, and through, direct bribery and other corrupt practices». The Commission highlighted payments made by EAGL for the benefit of President Jammeh of about US$10m.

Public Eye has learned that the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office opened a preliminary investigation into suspected bribery of a foreign public official. According to our information, French authorities have been looking into the matter since Fall 2021, following a complaint against persons unknown filed by Transparency International France. Totsa’s offices were searched in Geneva in February 2024 at the request of French prosecutors, and further requests have since been sent to Switzerland. Contacted by Public Eye, the Office of the Attorney General confirmed that the federal prosecutor is «currently executing» the request for mutual legal assistance from its French counterpart, though no criminal proceedings have been opened in Switzerland in connection with the case.

For more information, please contact:

Oliver Classen, Media director, +41 44 277 79 06, oliver.classen@publiceye.ch

Agathe Duparc, Commodities and finance investigator, +33 7 71 22 34 13, agathe.duparc@publiceye.ch