Utah man declined $100K offer to travel to Congo on ‘security job’ that was covert coup attempt

SALT LAKE CITY — The friend of the son of a prominent Congolese opposition leader said he turned down a six-figure offer to travel there from the US as part of the family’s security arrangements in what turned out to be a failed coup attempt.

Marcel Malanga, the 21-year-old son of eccentric coup leader Christian Malanga, was detained by Congolese forces along with a former classmate from their hometown of West Jordan, Utah, on Sunday morning after his father was killed in a gunfight while opposing arrest. . His high school football teammate, Tyler Thompson, 21, was one of two other Americans arrested after an ill-fated attack on the presidential palace in Kinshasa.

Six people were killed and dozens were arrested, including the three Americans, after that attack and another on the residence of a close ally of President Felix Tshisekedi, Congolese army spokesman Brig. General Sylvain Ekenge, said.

Daniel Gonzalez, a former teammate of the two Utahns involved in the foiled coup, told The Associated Press that Marcel had offered him $50,000 to $100,000 to spend four months in Congo as a security guard for his politician father. The 22-year-old FedEx employee strongly considered it, but said there were no concrete details. He ultimately declined so he could spend the summer with his girlfriend.

“I feel really sad for Tyler and Marcel, but at the end of the day I can just be grateful that I didn’t go because I would have been stuck in the same scary situation,” Gonzalez said.

Marcel’s lucrative offer to Gonzalez sheds light on how he could have enticed Thompson to go on what his stepmother Miranda believed was a vacation.

It was one of several proposals made by the coup leader’s American son to former football teammates in what many described as a desperate attempt to take someone to Congo. He presented the trip as a family vacation for some and as a service trip to build wells in drought-stricken communities for others.

While it is unclear whether Thompson was offered money, several teammates told the AP that he had hinted at such incentives, telling a friend that the trip could be a “great financial opportunity.”

Thompson’s family insists he is a political pawn drawn into an international conflict under false pretenses. They have had no direct communication with their son since the coup and are concerned for his safety, his stepmother said.

Neville’s mother, Brittney Sawyer, said her son is innocent and had followed his father.

Christian Malanga, the assassinated leader of the Congolese political opposition party, considered himself president of a shadow government in exile, which he called the “New Zaire.” He described himself on his website as a refugee who settled in Salt Lake City with his family. in the 1990s, pursuing business opportunities in gold mining and used car sales before eventually returning to Congo to fight for political reform.

While campaigning for the Congolese parliament, he claimed he had been imprisoned and suffered torturous abuse. He later published a manifesto outlining plans to reform Congo’s security services and described his movement as an attempt to organize fellow émigrés against the “current Congolese dictatorship regime.”

“Marcel was quite secretive about his father. He didn’t even know him well until he spent last summer in Africa,” Gonzalez said. ‘Marcel had absolutely no idea what he was going to involve us in, otherwise he would never have offered it. He is one of the best friends a person can have.”

In the early hours of Sunday, Christian Malanga began livestreaming video on social media from the palace. He is seen with his armed son, who hastily pulls a neck gaiter over his face and looks around with wide eyes. Congolese officials have not commented on how the attackers gained entry.

Gonzalez, of Herriman, Utah, said he had communicated with Marcel about the financial offer via Snapchat in the months leading up to the coup attempt, in messages that have since disappeared. He was shocked to hear how the trip went.

Marcel had told Gonzalez that his father let him hire a friend so he would have company during his summer abroad. He seemed excited that he could offer such a substantial amount of money to a close friend who needed it, Gonzalez explained.

The Malangas had been promised on-the-job training, full travel expense coverage and the chance to explore a new part of the world while earning an income, he said. Marcel repeatedly emphasized that it was safe, but did not reveal any details about his father’s background.

Neither Gonzalez nor his mother thought the trip would be unsafe, he said, despite the fact that the U.S. State Department strongly discouraged travel to Congo — but he turned it down when his girlfriend asked him not to leave for four months.

He later saw private Snapchat videos filmed by Marcel, showing Thompson looking scared as armed Congolese soldiers surrounded their vehicle. In Gonzalez’s last Snapchat conversation with his friend before they were captured, he asked if Thompson was okay and urged them to stay safe.

Neville assured him that it was.

Other former football teammates, including Luke Barbee and Jaden Lalor, had heard different stories about the trip and wondered why Neville seemed so desperate to bring someone along. Neither could fathom their friends’ possible involvement in a violent attack.

“I consider Marcel a brother to me and Tyler a friend, and I truly believe Marcel’s father pressured them for his own wishes,” Lalor said. “I just want them back safely.”