By Edward McAllister and Emma Farge

DAKAR (Reuters) – Funds from a dollar bank account in the name of the Jammeh Foundation for Peace, a charity founded by Gambia’s former president Yahya Jammeh, flowed to Jammeh himself, not to foundation projects, according to bank records and interviews with a former charity official and a former presidential staff member.

In 2012 and 2013, over $8 million (£6.3 million) was paid into the account at Gambia’s Trust Bank. Over half of the money was withdrawn in cash, Reuters has found.

Reuters was unable to determine whether donors intended to support the charity, or if donors, charity officials and the bank were aware that Jammeh was using the account to build his personal wealth. Reuters could not determine how the withdrawn money was spent.

Gambia’s new government has accused the former president of plundering many millions of dollars during his 22-year rule. On Monday, Finance Minister Amadou Sanneh said Jammeh had committed fraud on a massive scale including siphoning off tens of millions of dollars in public money into various bank accounts not in his name but from which he withdrew cash, including at the central bank.

The Jammeh Foundation for Peace’s former deputy CEO, Modou Lamin Manga, told Reuters that the charity did not at the time receive donations via the dollar account, which was one of two accounts held in the foundation’s name at Trust Bank during Manga’s tenure from 2010 to 2015. Manga was let go from the foundation during layoffs in 2015.

The Jammeh Foundation for Peace did not respond to multiple requests for comment. An official at Gambia’s Trust Bank Ltd, who declined to be named, confirmed the foundation banked there but declined to give further details.

Attempts to contact Jammeh in Equatorial Guinea, where he fled into exile last month after an election defeat, were unsuccessful.

Edward Gomez, Jammeh’s lawyer until last month, said he was unaware of any misspending by Jammeh. “I know that many people have benefited from the foundation but I can’t say where the money came from and who had access to it,” Gomez said.

The bank statements reviewed by Reuters showed that over $8 million was deposited in 11 instalments into the U.S. dollar account in the foundation’s name at Trust Bank in 2012 and 2013. All of the money was withdrawn.

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