Karim Wade
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Karim Meïssa Wade (born 1 September 1968) is a Senegalese politician who served in the government of Senegal as Minister of State for International Cooperation, Regional Development, Air Transport, and Infrastructure from May 2009 to April 2012. He is the son of
Abdoulaye Wade Abdoulaye Wade (, ; born 29 May 1926) is a Senegalese politician who served as the third president of Senegal from 2000 to 2012. He is also the Secretary-General of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), having led the party since it was founded ...
, who was
President of Senegal The president of Senegal () is the head of state of Senegal. In accordance with the 2001 Senegalese constitutional referendum, constitutional reform of 2001 and since a 2016 Senegalese constitutional referendum, referendum that took place on 20 ...
from 2000 to 2012. Before joining the government, Karim Wade was President of the National Agency for the
Organisation of the Islamic Conference The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC; ; ), formerly the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1969. It consists of 57 member states, 48 of which are Muslim-majority. The Pew Forum on ...
(''Agence Nationale de l'Organisation de la Conférence Islamique'', ANOCI) and served as an advisor to his father. He was widely seen as a possible successor to his father as president, and his father was widely believed to be grooming him for the position.


Early life

Wade, the son of
Abdoulaye Wade Abdoulaye Wade (, ; born 29 May 1926) is a Senegalese politician who served as the third president of Senegal from 2000 to 2012. He is also the Secretary-General of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), having led the party since it was founded ...
and his French wife Viviane Wade, was born in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
on 1 September 1968. He attended primary school at the French-Senegalese School of Dakar (part of the les Maristes
Cours Sainte Marie de Hann Cours Sainte Marie de Hann is a school for different group of ages ranging from Kindergarten to high school in Dakar, Senegal. It was founded in 1949–1950 and belongs to a group of private schools in the Dakar Diocese of the Catholic Church.
) and completed his secondary education at the School of Saint Martin of
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, where he obtained his Baccalaureate degree. He then attended the
University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
where he obtained a
bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
in Management Science followed by a
master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
in Financial Engineering.


Career

Karim's father, Abdoulaye Wade, was elected as President of Senegal in the 2000 presidential election after decades in opposition. In 2002, Karim Wade was named Personal Advisor to the President of the Republic, in charge of implementing major restructuring projects, among which were the New International Airport of Diass, the restructuring of Chemical Industries of Senegal (''Industries Chimiques du Senegal'', ICS), and the creation of the special integrated economic zone of Dakar. In June 2004, Wade was named President of ANOCI, whose mission was to prepare and organize the 11th Islamic Summit. The ANOCI team worked to create a so-called modern transportation infrastructure, rebuilding the ''Corniche Ouest'', and developing public works such as the Soumbedioune Tunnel and the Northern Corridor Highway exchanges. Critics complained that Wade exceeded his budget as President of ANOCI. On 26 August 2008, Wade met with French President
Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa ( ; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. In 2021, he was found guilty of having tried to bribe a judge in 2014 to obtain information ...
to discuss a project for the installation of a nuclear power station in Senegal. This would ease the problem of electrical power generation which had confronted the country for many years.


2009 Dakar election and ministerial appointment

Karim Wade ran for office for the first time in the March 2009 local election in Dakar. Although Wade won a seat as a municipal councillor, the opposition won a majority of seats and thus gained control of Dakar's municipal government; the outcome was considered to be a political humiliation for Wade."He's old but he's running", ''Africa Confidential'', volume 51, number 15, 23 July 2010, pages 8–9.
Souleymane Ndéné Ndiaye Souleymane Ndéné Ndiaye (born 6 August 1958) is a Senegalese politician who was Prime Minister of Senegal from 2009 to 2012. He was Minister of the Civil Service and Labour in 2005, Director of the Cabinet of the President of the Republic from 20 ...
was subsequently appointed Prime Minister, and met with Karim Wade on 1 May 2009; at that meeting he offered Wade a position in the government, which Wade accepted. Later the same day, Wade was appointed Minister of State for International Cooperation, Regional Development (''Aménagement du territoire''), Air Transport, and Infrastructure. Members of the opposition suggested that Wade and his father had originally planned to use local power in Dakar to position him for the presidential succession, but that the plan had been thwarted due to the opposition victory in Dakar. Consequently, according to the speculation, Wade would instead be positioned for the succession through control of a key ministry. In the press, Wade's ministry was described as the largest ever in Senegal since its independence, and Wade was compared to Ali Bongo, son of
Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...
ese President
Omar Bongo Omar Bongo Ondimba (born Albert-Bernard Bongo; 30 December 1935 – 8 June 2009) was a Gabonese politician who was the second president of Gabon from 1967 until Death and state funeral of Omar Bongo, his death in 2009. A member of the Gabonese De ...
, who was also thought to be positioned for the presidential succession through control of a key ministry. President Wade consistently dismissed claims that he was preparing his son for the succession, describing Karim as an ordinary citizen. The office building in which Karim Wade worked caught on fire on 1 October 2009 due to an electrical problem, and Wade was rescued from the building by French and Senegalese firefighters. In December 2009, when defending Senegal's construction of a massive "
African Renaissance The African Renaissance is the concept that the African people shall overcome the current challenges confronting the continent and achieve cultural, scientific, and economic renewal. This concept was first articulated by Cheikh Anta Diop in a seri ...
" statue from
imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...
claims that it was "idolatrous", President Wade compared the statue to Christian statues of
Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
. Although he used the comparison to counter the suggestion that the statue was idolatrous, some Christians angrily protested his remarks, and Wade sent Karim to deliver an apology to Theodore Adrien Sarr, the Archbishop of Dakar. In a government where decision-making was already heavily dominated by President Wade, Karim was given vast responsibilities that far exceeded those assigned to ordinary ministers, and some argued that his portfolio covered 46% of the state's budget. According to President Wade, Karim's vast responsibilities were justified by his exceptional competence. By 2010, with Karim playing a key role in government work, it seemed clear to many Senegalese that he was being prepared for the presidential succession, particularly in light of his father's advanced age (Abdoulaye Wade was 84 years old in 2010). The elder Wade's decision to create the office of Vice-President fueled rumors that he envisioned it as a mechanism through which to secure his son's succession, although he made no immediate move to appoint Karim (or anyone else) to the newly created post. Despite the speculation, in 2010 President Wade still seemed fit and energetic for a man of his age, and he expressed his intention to stand for another term in the 2012 presidential election. Karim himself was observed to be highly deferential towards his father. In the public, there was considerable objection to the notion of a father–son succession, and Karim seemed foreign to many Senegalese, raising the question of whether such a succession would be politically viable. President Wade expanded his "super-minister" son's already vast responsibilities even further by assigning him the energy portfolio, in addition to his others on 4 October 2010. Abdoulaye Wade ran for another term as President in the February—March 2012 presidential election; his candidacy was controversial, with the opposition arguing that he had already exhausted the two terms permitted under the constitution. Wade was ultimately defeated by opposition candidate
Macky Sall Macky Sall (, , ; born 11 December 1961) is a Senegalese politician who served as the fourth president of Senegal from 2012 to 2024. He previously served as the eighth Prime Minister of Senegal, prime minister from 2004 to 2007, under President ...
. Karim Wade consequently lost his appointed government post in April 2012, when Sall was sworn in.


Legal charges

A year after leaving office, Karim Wade was charged with corruption and imprisoned at Rebeuss beginning on 17 April 2013. He was sentenced to six years imprisonment on 23 March 2015, two days after the Senegalese Democratic Party designated him as its candidate for the next presidential election. He was also fined 138 billion
CFA franc CFA franc (, ) is the name of two currencies used by 210 million people (as of 2023) in fourteen African countries: the West African CFA franc (where "CFA" stands for , i.e. "African Financial Community" in English), used in eight West African c ...
s (
US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
228 million). Wade appealed to the Supreme Court, but the court ruled against him on 20 August 2015. Opponents of Sall argued that Wade's imprisonment was politically motivated. He spent three years in jail before being pardoned by Sall and released from prison on 24 June 2016. He was, however, still required to pay his enormous fine. Following his release he went into exile in Qatar where he has resided since then.


Panama Papers

When ICIJ partner journalists from Ouestaf.com examined the Panama Papers they discovered documentation of the existence of secret contracts and payments between
DP World DP World is a multinational logistics company based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It specialises in cargo logistics, port terminal operations, maritime services and free trade zones. Formed in 2005 by the merger of Dubai Ports Authority and ...
FZE (DP) and Mamadou Pouye, the
bribery Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or Offer and acceptance, acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official ...
codefendant of Karim Wade. This information was not available at their trial; Ouestaf confirmed their financial ties to the corporation for the first time during the Panama Papers investigation. Wade was sentenced in 2015 to a 6-year prison term by the ''Cour de répression de l’enrichissement illicite'' (Crei), a specialized anti-corruption court. Wade was accused of illegally amassing assets of more than $240 million, and his childhood friend Pouye was sentenced to five years for allegedly helping him. Both denied wrongdoing and the United Nations and Amnesty International said their rights had been violated at trial. Ouestaf's investigation did not address the legality of the trial. Ouestaf did conclude that they had succeeded in tracing a payment to Pouye's oversea shell company from a subsidiary of DP. *Pouye owned three offshore companies, Seabury Inc, Regory Invest and Latvae Inc. :*Through Seabury, a consulting contract worth €7.2 million with
DP World DP World is a multinational logistics company based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It specialises in cargo logistics, port terminal operations, maritime services and free trade zones. Formed in 2005 by the merger of Dubai Ports Authority and ...
materialized. :*Regory Invest acted as a Seabury subcontractor, and was paid €65,000 a month, according to the documents. :*A second contract for 2013-2015 to focus on DP's African holdings, and would have paid Wade and Pouye $3 million at signing; however the pair were arrested. Seabury was set up in 2008, a year after Senegal signed a contract with DP World for rights to the container terminal at the Autonomous Port of Dakar. According to ''Ouestaf'' the documents make it clear that while Crei investigators were interested in the funds in Pouye's Monaco account, they did not know that the money was coming from his own offshore company.


Personal life

Wade was married to a French citizen, Karine Wade, and had three daughters with her. She died of cancer in Paris on 10 April 2009.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wade, Karim 1968 births Living people Senegalese people of French descent French people of Senegalese descent Children of presidents Government ministers of Senegal University of Paris alumni People named in the Panama Papers Senegalese politicians convicted of crimes Prisoners and detainees of Senegal Senegalese prisoners and detainees Politicians convicted of corruption French Muslims Senegalese Muslims Politicians from Paris Senegalese Democratic Party politicians