Watches and jets – the man accused of scamming Lekoil, according to social media

A man accused of pretending to represent the Qatari sovereign wealth fund to scam investors at a London-listed oil firm, uses social media to show off his jet-set lifestyle.

But a cursory internet search for Rilk Dacleu-Idrac, who Lekoil said acted as a “purported representative” of the Qataris, shows he was also caught up in a money laundering case in Senegal.

French language reports speak of his ten months in a Senegalese prison while awaiting trial on allegations that were later dismissed in court.

Lekoil still seemed happy to do business with Mr Dacleu-Idrac, who it says was “the purported representative” of the Qatari sovereign wealth fund QIA.

Lekoil thought it had secured a 184 million dollar (£144 million) loan from the Qataris, but it later turned out to be bogus. On Monday the oil firm admitted that it should have been able to spot that it was a scam.

Local press reports said that Mr Dacleu-Idrac was arrested in Senegal for alleged connections to the son of a former Senegalese president.

Karim Wade, the president’s son, was jailed for graft and corruption in 2015 before heading into exile in Qatar in 2017.

In July the same year Mr Dacleu-Idrac was arrested by Senegalese customs and spent ten months in prison before the charges against him were dismissed.

The PA news agency has been unable to independently confirm these reports.

“I am not involved in illicit or other activities,” Mr Dacleu-Idrac said in an interview with the Senegalese Le Quotidien newspaper after his release.

Mr Dacleu-Idrac certainly lives the life of a millionaire financier. In the 2018 interview with Le Quotidien he revealed that he always carries 5,000 US dollars (£4,000) in cash. The publication reported that he had amassed more than 100 million US dollars (£78 million).

Pictures on his Facebook page reveal a taste for expensive-looking watches and bespoke suits.

He is also pictured with his arm around a man who appears to be Prinz Marcus von Anhalt, a famous German nightclub owner.

“I am fine wearing a 50 dollar Casio watch as well as wearing a 1.2 million dollar Vacheron Constantin,” he said in a Facebook post.

A picture posted to his Facebook page appears to show two men who appeared in pictures posted to Seawave’s website.

They are with three other men, one of whom is wearing a thawb, a traditional form of Arabic dress. On the wall behind them is a map of Madagascar.

In late August at least four articles about Mr Dacleu-Idrac appeared on Indian news sites.

One headline, from August 29, read: “Meet Rilk Dacleu-Idrac – the businessman who is making the internet jealous with his extravagant lifestyle and elite company.”

The article also says he is “a big-hearted philanthropist” who donates millions of dollars to charity.

Another article, posted on August 27 in the International Business Times India reads: “Inside the Fabulous World of Rilk Dacleu-Idrac.”

Two other articles appeared in the Deccan Chronicle and the Asian Age, also on August 27. They show a picture of Mr Dacleu-Idrac with Steve Aoki, a world-famous American DJ, claiming they were working together in a new collaboration. Both articles are identical.

“Anything is possible when Rilk sets out to pursuit [sic] it!”, they read.

When asked about Lekoil’s allegations by the PA news agency on Facebook, Mr Dacleu-Idrac said: “I believe it is important to state I never had contact with this company expect [sic] having briefly ket [sic] its CEO once which [sic] introduced to me had a plan which I expressed no interest at the time.”