Under investigation for corruption of foreign agents, the company SICPA Holding SA is continuing its charm operation towards African markets. According to information from Financial Afrik, this company headed by Philippe Amon received for a week, in mid-September, a strong Ivorian delegation in Casablanca, the headquarters of its subsidiary for Africa.

The visit of the Ivorian delegation comes at a time when the judicial vice is tightening on SICPA. Since 2015, the company has been under investigation by the Public Prosecutor of the Swiss Confederation in response to requests for mutual assistance from the United States and Luxembourg. The investigations initially focused on suspicions of corruption in Togo, Ghana and the Philippines. They have gradually extended to eleven other countries appearing at the bottom of the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, including Nigeria and Ghana. SICPA is suspected of bribing foreign public officials in these fourteen countries in order to win contracts.

Specializing in secure marking, in particular monetary ink, the company founded in 1927 has diversified into the tracing and control of products subject to excise duties (tobacco, alcohol). It currently manages some forty government contracts on five continents. "Lobbyists" in Africa, SICPA bases its development on several French personalities at the head of which Eric Besson. To canvass the states of the continent, it relies on several other “lobby sites” including Dominique Strauss-Kahn, also a resident of the Kingdom. Under contract with several countries on debt restructuring files (Togo, Republic of Congo ...) "DSK" opened, a few years ago, the doors of Togo to the multinational based in Prilly, in the canton of Vaux.