APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) Top Zimbabwean officials are behind a syndicate in which billions of dollars of gold are being smuggled out of the country to Dubai, according to an investigation by Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera published on Thursday.
Among the officials is controversial cleric Uebert Angel who was shown in the Al Jazeera documentary offering to use his status as Zimbabwe’s Ambassador-At-Large to launder millions of dollars through a gold-smuggling scheme.
Angel told undercover Al Jazeera reporters that he would be able to carry large volumes of dirty cash into the country using his diplomatic status without questions being raised.
“It will land in Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe can’t touch it too until I get to my house. So, there can be a diplomatic plan,” he told the reporters.
He would facilitate a scheme through which unaccounted cash could be exchanged for Zimbabwe’s gold.
Recipients of the gold could then sell the precious metal for legitimate money, effectively turning their cash clean.
“You want gold, gold we can do it right now, we can make the call right now, and it’s done,” Angel told Al Jazeera’s reporters.
Angel and his business partner Rikki Doolan also claimed that their laundering operations had the approval of Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Others named in the documentary included Henrietta Rushwaya, a controversial figure believed to be related to Mnangagwa who was previously arrested for match-fixing during her time as chief executive of the Zimbabwe Football Association and more recently for gold smuggling.
Others were the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe which was accused of acting as “laundromat” for the money launderers who would bring their dirty money into the country and buy gold from a company run by the central bank.
A number of white and Asian men were also cited as being part of the smuggling and money laundering scheme. These included Kenyan-born businessman Kamlesh Pattni, Rikki Doolan, Ewan Macmillan and Alistair Mathias.
JN/APA