VZCZCXYZ0018
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHYD #1235/01 2881308
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 151308Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY YAOUNDE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8225
INFO RUEHSW/AMEMBASSY BERN PRIORITY 0030
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 1658
RUEHLE/AMEMBASSY LUXEMBOURG PRIORITY 0002
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA PRIORITY 0050
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 1933
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 0780
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 0104
RUEHTC/AMEMBASSY THE HAGUE PRIORITY 0105

C O N F I D E N T I A L YAOUNDE 001235 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INL/C AND AF/C 
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA ACTION OFFICERS 
PRETORIA FOR DHS/ICE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/11/2017 
TAGS: KCOR PREL PGOV CM
SUBJECT: CAMEROON CORRUPTION INVESTIGATIONS: WHO IS DOOH 
COLLINS? 
 
REF: A. YAOUNDE 752 NOTAL 
     ¶B. YAOUNDE 1068 NOTAL 
     ¶C. YAOUNDE 1234 
     ¶D. BROWN-SCHWING E-MAILS 
 
Classified By: Poloff Tad Brown for reasons 1.4 b and d. 
 
¶1.  (C)  Summary.  Francis Dooh Collins is Justice Minister 
Ali's chosen interlocutor with foreign governments regarding 
the anti-corruption investigation Ali is spearheading 
(reftels).  Although some of Dooh Collins' outlandish claims 
have given us reason to doubt his credibility, he has 
succeeded in producing a mutual legal assistance (MLA) 
request signed by Ali (septel), and he is, at least for the 
time being, the Government of Cameroon's (GRC) chosen agent 
for this purpose.  In the interest of cultivating a more 
professional, sustainable anti-corruption effort from the 
GRC, we will seek to convince Ali to establish soon a 
formalized structure to handle this and similar requests for 
the GRC, which may also help minimize the wildcard factor of 
Dooh Collins' inscrutable role.  End summary. 
 
---------- 
Background 
---------- 
 
¶2.  (C)  Cameroonian Justice Minister Amadou Ali tapped 
Francis Dooh Collins to act as the Government of Cameroon's 
point person for a series of anti-corruption investigations 
because, Ali said, Dooh Collins came from a highly reputed 
Cameroonian family (ref b).  Ali went on to say that he would 
be willing to drop Dooh Collins if the USG had adverse 
information or concerns about him. 
 
¶3.  (C)  At the Ali's request, former Ambassador Marquardt 
met with Dooh Collins and his American citizen colleague, 
Robert Horwath, multiple times during the weeks of June 4 and 
11 (ref a).  Horwath has not been in any of the subsequent 
meetings.  Poloff met with Dooh Collins on September 12, 
September 24 and October 10.  Information from Dooh Collins 
and Robert Horwath's business cards and Dooh Collins 
Cameroonian National ID Card follows para 10-11. 
 
------------------------------- 
Dooh Collins and The $1 Million 
------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (C)   In a September 12 meeting with Poloff that lasted 
almost two hours, Dooh Collins expressed his general 
confidence that the GRC's coordination with the USG, UK and 
other countries was moving forward.  Dooh Collins mentioned 
the $1 million that Ali provided for the investigation (refs 
a and b) and said he would ask Ali for more.  In response to 
Poloff's questions as to why even $1 million was needed, Dooh 
Collins said the funds were needed to secure the cooperation 
of foreign governments and other partners in the 
investigation.  Dooh Collins began by explaining that the 
funds were used to "entice" Swiss and French intelligence to 
provide relevant information because, Dooh Collins said, they 
were otherwise busy and not interested in helping Cameroon. 
He went on to say he also provided funds to UK intelligence 
in order to secure their help and finished his explanation by 
asserting he was using the funds to subsidize the travel and 
work being done by the USG, specifically to the Department of 
Homeland Security's ICE, to pay for two ICE officers to be 
dedicated to the Cameroon file and to subsidize their travel. 
 Poloff repeated this information back to Dooh Collins to 
verify, and Dooh Collins confirmed that he was claiming to 
have provided funds to USG and other agencies in order to 
subsidize and incentivize their cooperation with the 
investigation.  Poloff relayed this information to DHS 
officials in Washington who vehemently denied Dooh Collins' 
characterization (ref d). 
 
¶5.  (C)  When Poloff revisited this issue during an October 
10 conversation, Dooh Collins said that Ali would ask Biya 
for a further $600,000 when Biya returns from Geneva.  In 
response to Poloff's asking why such large sums would be 
needed, Dooh Collins said that he would need to pay for a 
lawyer in Luxembourg and for other (unspecified) partners 
 
contributing to the investigation.  (Note: In the September 
12 meeting, Dooh Collins said he was working with Andre 
Lutgen, a lawyer in Luxembourg.  End Note.) 
 
----------------- 
The French Factor 
----------------- 
 
¶6.  (C)  In the September 12 meeting with Poloff, Dooh 
Collins said that shortly after his birth in Cameroon his 
family moved to France, where he spent most of his life and, 
he said, worked for French intelligence.  Dooh Collins 
reported that the French Government had conveyed to him its 
disapproval of this anti-corruption mission and told him not 
to travel on his French passport while conducting it.  Dooh 
Collins said the French government had previously intervened 
to sidetrack Cameroonian investigations because such inquests 
inevitably turned up links to prominent French politicians 
and businesses.  Dooh Collins alleged that French 
intelligence agencies had broken into Biya's office and 
stolen from his desk the list of "suspects" and then leaked 
it to the press in order to discredit the investigation. 
Dooh Collins said that, for these reasons, the French were 
not to be informed about the investigation (further info 
about GRC suspicion of French opposition to the 
anti-corruption effort at refs a and b).  In the subsequent 
October 10 meeting, Dooh Collins said he was hopeful that the 
French Government might become more cooperative under the 
leadership of Sarkozy. 
 
------------------------------------- 
Dooh Collins and Cameroonian Politics 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  (C)  Dooh Collins is not shy about his personal ambitions 
beyond the current investigation.  He has shared with us 
papers that he claims to have presented to Biya laying out 
his ideas for restructuring a number of sensitive sectors in 
Cameroon, including the management of petroleum revenues and 
public debt.  On October 10, he claimed that Biya has already 
ceded tremendous authority to Ali and said it was almost a 
foregone conclusion that Biya would tap Ali to succeed him in 
¶2011.  Dooh Collins said that a cabinet reshuffle planned for 
March 2008 would dismiss Prime Minister Inoni and name as his 
replacement the current Assistant Secretary General at the 
Presidency (and Anglophone), Philomen Yang.  Dooh Collins 
asserted that "there are many dossiers" on Inoni, including 
one for Inoni's involvement in the Albatross affair, but that 
Inoni was left out of the GRC's investigation for the time 
being in order to avoid angering his Anglophone base of 
support. 
 
------------------------- 
Dooh Collins's Next Travel 
------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (C)  Dooh Collins has now spoken with diplomatic missions 
in Yaounde of the US, UK, Canada, Holland, and Italy.  Dooh 
Collins said that he will travel to Geneva, Luxembourg and 
London sometime after October 15 to meet with officials 
contributing to the investigation.  Dooh Collins expressed an 
interest in returning to the US to meet with USG officials in 
Washington and Miami, but said he would put off his trip to 
await feedback from Washington on the MLA he has submitted. 
 
--------------------------------- 
Comment:  Mitigating the Wildcard 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (C)  Comment.  Dooh Collins has thus far been a critical 
element of Ali's ambitious plan to tap international sources 
for an anti-corruption investigation.  His claims to be using 
GRC funds to pay off foreign governments, including the USG, 
trouble us, but Dooh Collins' credibility has little bearing 
on the larger objective of GRC-USG cooperation on 
anti-corruption.  Leaving aside the personality of Dooh 
Collins, a serious anti-corruption investigation, involving 
multiple agencies from multiple governments, will require a 
more formalized system of exchange.  In the interest of 
cultivating a more professional, sustainable anti-corruption 
 
effort from the GRC, we will seek to convince Ali to 
establish soon a formalized structure to handle this and 
similar requests for the GRC, which may also help minimize 
the wildcard factor of Dooh Collins' inscrutable role.  End 
comment. 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  Information from Dooh Collins' Cameroonian 
National ID Card: 
 
Name:  Francis Ebosse Theodore Dooh Collins 
Date of Birth:  February 23, 1960 
Father: Henri Ned Collins Dooh 
Mother Riquette Borgy 
Profession: Accounting Expert 
Height: 1.77 meters 
Weight:  91 
Number 106991164 
Issued October 29, 2005 
 
End information from Dooh Collins' Cameroonian National ID 
Card. 
 
¶11.  (SBU)  Information from business cards left by Dooh 
Collins and Robert Horwath: 
 
Petroleum Advising Services (PAS) Ltd. 
Francis Dooh Collins 
Managing Director-Finance & Project 
 
16, chemin des Morettes 
1273 arzier/VD - Switzerland 
Tel :   41 78 888 88 89 Fax :  41 22 366 00 48 
Cell :  41 786 06 83 23 / 333 89 62 84 40 
E-mail : petroladvise@hotmail.com 
 
(written in hand: 75-82-03-88) 
 
Robert Horwath 
Managing Director - Shipping 
16, chemin des Morettes 
1273 arzier/VD - Switzerland 
Tel :   41 78 888 88 89 
Fax :  41 22 366 00 48 
Cell :  41 789 08 98 91 
E-mail : goptasltd@hotmail.com 
 
End information from business cards left by Dooh Collins and 
Robert Horwath. 
NELSON