The Anglo-Leasing scam-linked envoy with little regard for red tape

A former Swiss diplomat at the centre of the Sh5 billion Anglo Leasing scandal had street smarts and a knack for getting things done, friends and former associates during his five-year stint in Kenya said.

Mr Jacques Pitteloud, who this week found himself back in the spotlight over allegations that he asked for a Sh5 billion bribe from controversial businessman Deepak Kamani to influence findings of a money laundering probe, is also known to have had a dislike for officialdom which his diplomatic position demanded of him.

In the claims against the envoy billionaire businessman Kamani — under probe by Swiss and Kenyan authorities for his alleged role in the Anglo Leasing saga — has said in court papers that Mr Pitteloud tried to extort money from him at his Kyuna residence in Nairobi last May.

The tycoon attached copies of text messages between him and Mr Pitteloud in his suit papers, alleging that the Swiss ambassador threatened to initiate money laundering investigations against him if he did not pay up the billions he was asking for.

The Swiss government this week ordered investigations into the scam. In his defence, the embattled diplomat has dismissed the claims saying top Kenyan government officials knew about the Anglo Leasing scam.

Mr Pitteloud, who currently sits at the helm of a crucial docket at the Swiss Foreign Affairs Ministry, said Kenyan officials including Attorney-General Githu Muigai and others at the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) “knew everything” about the deal which he claimed was prepared by the two countries and presented to Mr Kamani as a proposed settlement of the Anglo Leasing scheme.

A review of Mr Pitteloud’s stint in Kenya shows he had a penchant for having his way and getting assignments done. Sections of the Swiss media said this week that the former spy boss, who has affinity for expensive whiskey, has for a long time had the ear of who is who in the government earning the title of the “go-to-man” when authorities want “things done.”

His friends and acquaintances in Kenya as well as information obtained from public reports paint a picture of a professional who felt trapped by the bureaucracy of diplomacy, which demands patience in decision making.

Kenya’s wealthy elite

“Off Twitter because our government will soon introduce a new regulation about a unified use of social media for our embassies,” the diplomat wrote on August 2, 2011, on his handle in an apparent lament about Switzerland’s new directive on the use of social media by diplomats in their official duties.
“Plenipotentiary dates back to the time when envoys could decide what to do without asking their capitals what to do,” he wrote on Twitter on another occasion in 2011.

While Mr Pitteloud often joked about lacking in charisma, he did not have trouble blending with Kenya’s wealthy elite after he was posted to Nairobi.

A keen adventurer and avid bird watcher, the diplomat’s launch event of a book he coauthored on birds in Kenya attracted an A-list of Kenya’s high society.
But Mr Pitteloud is also said to have had a way with the civil society in the capitals he represented in the region.

Mr Aly Khan Satchu, the founder and CEO of investment advisory firm Rich Management, described the diplomat as a “dear friend”.

Despite operating at the highest levels of international diplomacy, Mr Satchu said, the envoy was able to gel well with locals wherever he went. “Jacques could create a frisson of excitement… The amazing thing about him was his ability to blend in at all levels of society. He met with presidents and civil society activists,” said Mr Khan.

Mr Pitteloud was born in the Swiss town of Zürich in 1962. He later obtained a doctorate degree in law before joining the Swiss government in 1988.
He served as Intelligence Coordinator at the Swiss Ministry of Defence between May 2000 and June 2005.

He then rose though the ranks to become Head of Security Policy and Arms Control at the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs for five years up to 2010.
In his defence, Mr Pitteloud pointed to his long experience as a diplomat as the one reason that could have prevented him from manipulating the Kenyan and Swiss justice systems as alleged by Mr Kamani.

Mr Pitteloud, who is fluent in five languages, was nicknamed James Bond by his close friends ‘‘because he is an action man”, said Mr Satchu.

The diplomat was so respected by his government that in July 2008 it sent him to Tripoli to diffuse a diplomatic fallout over the arrest in Geneva of Hannibal Gaddafi, the son of the late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, and his wife.

The couple was held for allegedly mistreating two of their servants. Libya detained two Swiss nationals in retaliation. The Gaddafis were released two days later.

Mr Pitteloud — who was also Switzerland’s head of mission for Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Somalia and the Seychelles while he served in Kenya — is said to have had a good grasp of African geopolitics.

At a public lecture at Strathmore Law School in Nairobi, Mr Pitteloud is said to have impressed the students with his “excellent grasp” of African issues as later captured by a blog on the institution’s website.

Stood against graft

Yet his attachment to the region goes beyond professional ties. His wife Engelique is Rwandese.
While paying tribute to Mr Pitteloud in a local daily, former MP and political detainee Koigi wa Wamwere described him as a go-getter who stood against graft.

“Since independence, Africa and Kenya have received both good and bad diplomats from the West exemplified by William Attwood, the author of Reds and Blacks. Worse than in Kenya, Western diplomats led by the American ambassador and Frank Carlucci played an active role in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of Congo,” Mr Wamwere wrote.

He continued: “But Kenya has also received some very good Western diplomats who did a lot to assist Africa. One of the good diplomats is the Swiss ambassador Jacques Pitteloud, for whom I have written this tribute to say goodbye to a good diplomat, thank you for assistance rendered to fight

corruption... we will miss you... Of course, targets of your anti-corruption crusade will be very happy to have you go.”

In an interview with the Business Daily this week the diplomat described Kenya as “God’s country” pointing to his attachment to locals.

“I miss Kenya, my five years here were some of the best in my career,” he said in interview from Switzerland amid the probe which has now overshadowed his illustrious career and threatens to permanently taint it.

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