American living in Swaziland says he's victim of 'mistaken identity' after being linked to botched Congo coup launched by Utah father and his son

An American living in Africa says he was a victim of mistaken identity after online reports linked him to a botched coup attempt in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

Benjamin Zalman-Polun, 36, was one of three American citizens seen in the central African nation on Sunday before the coup's apparent leader Christian Malanga was shot dead. 

As videos of the detained Americans surfaced online, social media users quickly began pointing the finger at businessman Cole Patrick Ducey, highlighting his business connections to Malanga and Zalman-Polun.

But Ducey, who currently resides in Eswatini, told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that he was not at all involved in the botched operation supposedly master-minded by former US refugee Malanga.

'I was not involved in any way. It was mistaken identity caused by somebody finding a company registration document from Mozambique from years ago,' said from his home in Africa.

Social media users quickly began pointing the finger at businessman Cole Patrick Ducey, highlighting his business connections to the operation's leader Christian Malanga 

'Ben and Christian were on that document with me because they took me to look at mining concessions in Mozambique. Nothing panned out - I didn't do business with them. I haven't spoken to them in multiple years.'

Still, as he was following the news from Congo, Ducey was surprised to see a social media user using the document to wrongly name him as one of the Americans involved in the alleged coup. 

Ducey then contacted the social media user and asked him to take down the post, offering proof that he was not in Congo when the botched mission happened.  

The businessman previously told ABC News that he met Zalman-Polun when they were both students at the University of Colorado in 2006. 

Marcel Malanga, the American son of Christian Malanga, was detained in Congo after the failed operation

Social media users wrongly identified the man on the right as Ducey. The pictured man's actual identity remains unconfirmed

The two lost contact for years, until Zalman-Polun contacted Ducey in 2020 regarding a a mining opportunity in Mozambique and introduced him to Malanga.

The trio traveled to Mozambique in 2022 to review the mining concessions, and started a limited liability corporation.

However. Ducey said they did not continue working together after creating the company. 

Ducey said they never discussed the political situation in Congo or Malanga’s desire to be part of the government there. Ducey said he eventually decided not to go into business with the two men.

'We simply viewed a couple mining concessions in Mozambique,' Ducey said of Malanga. 'I didn’t know him very well but from what I gathered he wasn’t very intelligent.'

He said he had no contact with Malanga and Zalman-Polun in about two years and was shocked to read about their alleged involvement in a violent coup attempt.

Benjamin Zalman-Polun, 36, was one of three American citizens seen in the west African nation on Sunday. He, Malanga and Cole at one point created an LLC together 

'I had nothing to do with this and was not involved in any way,' said Ducey, who was in Eswatini on Monday, referring to reports in the Congolese media naming him among the attackers.

The alleged coup attempt began at the Kinshasa residence of Vital Kamerhe, a federal legislator and a candidate for speaker of the National Assembly of Congo. His guards killed the attackers, officials said. 

Congo’s army spokesman on Tuesday released the name of the third American involved in the foiled coup, while family members in Utah gathered to mourn Malanga.

Brig. Gen. Sylvain Ekenge told The Associated Press the third American was Taylor Thomson. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Thomson was among those arrested or killed on Sunday morning following the attack on the palace and another on the residence of a close ally of President Felix Tshisekedi.

Ducey said they never discussed the political situation in Congo or Malanga’s desire to be part of the government there

Ducey, an engineer, lives in in Eswatini with his girlfriend. Both are pictured

Malanga, described as a naturalized American by Ekenge, was killed in a shootout at the palace after resisting arrest. The State Department said it could not confirm Malanga was a U.S. citizen. 

The other two Americans involved were Zalman-Polun, a married father-of-three, and Malanga’s 21-year-old son, Marcel. 

Authorities were still trying to untangle how the young man went from playing high school football in Utah to allegedly trying to unseat the leader of one of Africa’s largest countries.

'My son is innocent,' his mother, Brittney Sawyer, wrote in an email to The Associated Press on Monday, declining to elaborate.

Marcel Malanga, 21, looked terrified as he was hauled into frame ahead of the coup attempt in a video posted to Facebook by his father 

In a Facebook post early Monday, Sawyer angrily wrote that her son had followed his father. 'This was an innocent boy following his father. I’m so tired of all the videos being posted all over and being sent to me. God will take care of you people!'

One video that circulated on social media over the weekend showed her son alongside a bloodied white man, whose identity was unclear, both covered in dust and surrounded by Congolese soldiers. Marcel has his hands raised and a frightened look on his face.

Dino Mahtani, who worked in Congo for years as a journalist and then a political adviser to the U.N. between 2015-18, told the AP that Malanga had likely been tricked or betrayed.

'Its really difficult to imagine how 20, 30 guys thought that by storming the presidential palace when nobody is around at 4 a.m. in the morning could somehow take over the Congolese state,' he said. 

'It could be external plotters, but given his previous close relationship with at least one of Tshiskedi’s current military commanders, there’s some chance the plot was known about internally.'