Congolese businessman Francis Selemani Mtwale, a close associate and adopted brother of former president Joseph Kabila, is currently fighting to retain four luxury properties in Montgomery County, Maryland. The New York-based investment fund FG Hemisphere (FGH) is attempting to seize these properties to settle a multi-million dollar arbitration debt owed by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The amount is $4.15 million, pending a final ruling on whether the properties were acquired with misappropriated public funds, Africa Intelligence reported.
FG Hemisphere is a distressed debt investor (often referred to as a “vulture fund”) that has acquired the rights to a decades-old debt from the Yugoslav company Energoinvest. This debt, related to the construction of the Mobayi Mbongo Dam, now exceeds $30 million, including interest. FG Hemisphere is targeting the Maryland properties because the DRC and its national electricity company (SNEL) have not paid the debt. The company claims that these houses, acquired for approximately $4.15 million, were purchased with public funds misappropriated by Sud Oil. The properties remain frozen while the court determines whether they constitute the DRC’s “alter ego.”
Details of the homes of Francis Selemani Mtwale and his wife, Aneth Michael Lutale, in Montgomery County, Maryland
According to Maryland court documents and records:
1. Bethesda (Grosvenor Heights): Two luxury townhouses were purchased through the Balanne Family Living Trust.
2. May 2018: One property acquired for approximately $1,225,000.
3. December 2018: A second property purchased for approximately $885,000.
4. Rockville: A four-bedroom house purchased in April 2015 for approximately $670,000.
The use of the Balanne Family Living Trust was intended to conceal the true beneficiaries’ identities. The trust was managed by Aneth Michael Lutale, the wife of Francis Selemani. Investigators and the firm FG Hemisphere allege that these funds originated from the embezzlement of DRC public funds, channeled through BGFIBank Congo. In total, the couple is suspected of having acquired 17 properties in the United States for a total of approximately $6.6 million.
Sud Oil, an obscure company controlled by Selemani’s wife, Aneth Lutale
Sud Oil, an obscure company controlled by Selemani’s wife, Aneth Lutale, had received $85 million in public funds from the Central Bank of Congo. Selemani, as a former director of this bank, BGFIBank DRC,
had overseen the transfer of at least $12 million from Sud Oil to his personal accounts and trusts. A federal judge in Maryland has authorized FGH to freeze the properties—valued at approximately $4.15 million—pending a final ruling on whether they were acquired with misappropriated public funds.
FGH maintains that the homes were purchased “all cash” under suspicious circumstances, with money looted in the DRC by Kabila and channeled through Selemani in his capacity as CEO of BGFIBank. Selemani’s defense team, led by Brian D. Lyman, asserts that there is no direct link between these personal properties and the decades-old $30 million judgment against the DRC government. Separately, and relatedly, the U.S. government recently imposed sanctions on Joseph Kabila, effective May 1, 2026, for his alleged role in supporting the M23 rebel group.
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