Gold Mafia: Al Jazeera Exposes Massive Gold Smuggling Operations at the Highest Levels of Government in Zimbabwe
Al Jazeera has conducted a much publicised documentary investigation that has uncovered some of the biggest gold smuggling operations in Southern Africa. In a four-part documentary series, the investigation reveals how billions of dollars’ worth of gold is smuggled from Zimbabwe to Dubai every month, allowing criminals to launder dirty money through a network of “shell companies, fake invoices and paid-off officials.” The investigation also reports how Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government is using gold smugglers to get around Western sanctions imposed on the country.
Gold accounts for almost half of Zimbabwe’s exports, but the nation faces a strict international sanctions regime, and even though its gold trade is not in itself banned by the West, the broader strictures against Zimbabwe make it harder to export the precious metal through official channels.
Using a web of companies and patronage from some of Zimbabwe’s most powerful individuals, smugglers have turned those constraints on trade into an opportunity to launder billions of dollars and help the government in Harare get around some of the consequences of sanctions.
Gold miners in Zimbabwe.
During the investigation, Simon Rudland, a prominent businessman in Zimbabwe, is shown to be using Zimbabwean and South African companies to allegedly launder money. Rudland is the owner of Gold Leaf Tobacco, a major cigarette brand in southern Africa, especially in South Africa's black market.
According to documents discovered by Al Jazeera and witness statements, Rudland loans money to Zimbabwe's government, which is cash-strapped due to Western sanctions. In exchange, Fidelity Printers and Refiners, the Zimbabwean central bank's refinery, reportedly permits his couriers to transport millions of dollars worth of gold to Dubai for sale through frequent trips. "He gives Fidelity the money, to buy the gold, for him to export," fellow Zimbabwean gold smuggler Ewan Macmillan said in secretly recorded interviews, claiming that Rudland "bankrolls the whole country."
Image taken from Al Jazeera’s documentary ‘Gold Mafia.’
Fidelity Printers and Refiners (FPR) is a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and is the country's sole buyer of gold. FPR is responsible for refining and exporting gold to international markets and is also involved in the monitoring and regulation of the gold sector in Zimbabwe. The organisation is supposed to play a crucial role in ensuring that the gold produced in Zimbabwe is properly accounted for and that it benefits the country's economy.
Smugglers however work directly for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and Fidelity Printers and Refiners. They buy the gold on behalf of the central bank, as the central bank cannot afford it. In return, the individuals are given licenses by FPR to sell the gold abroad – as the Zimbabwe government is unable to sell it themselves due to sanctions. The smugglers go on to sell the gold in Dubai and return to Zimbabwe with U.S. dollars, which are significantly more valuable than Zimbabwe’s own plummeting currency. This whole process acts as a means of criminal money laundering.
Official paperwork confirming Fidelity’s involvement in the gold scandal, as seen in shown the Al Jazeera documentary.
Gold Leaf Tobacco denied any involvement, past or present, in money laundering, the trade in illegal gold, or related matter, and has threatened to sue Al Jazeera. Although no "untaxed" or "illegal" cigarettes have been directly linked to Gold Leaf, the proceeds from the illicit sale of its products by others seemed to have been moved between jurisdictions and laundered – according to the documentary. Fidelity Printers and Refiners too denied any wrongdoing.
The investigation also uncovered one of the smuggling operations was led by Zimbabwe’s ‘second in command,’ Uebert Angel. Angel was appointed by Mnangagwa to secure global investments for Zimbabwe, and he is one of the country’s most influential diplomats. Angel works with his deputy, Rikki Doolan, who offered Al Jazeera’s undercover reporters the opportunity to use Angel’s diplomatic cover to smuggle dirty money into Zimbabwe. That cash would then be used to purchase Zimbabwean gold with the help of Henrietta Rushwaya, president of the country’s mining association and a niece of Mnangagwa.
Hidden cameras recorded Angel offering an introduction to President Emmerson Mnangagwa for a $200,000 ‘appreciation fee’ as a way of saying ‘thank you.’ Angel stated “there’s a big difference in appreciating somebody and bribing.”
Angel, a Zimbabwean diplomat, discussing laundering money through Fidelity Printers and Refiners. Image taken from Al Jazeera’s documentary ‘Gold Mafia.’
Due to the nature of the gold trade, it is difficult to determine the origin of the gold regardless of where it was purchased and even if it bears a stamp from a particular country.
The investigation uncovered a pattern of gold smuggling from Zimbabwe to Dubai, where it is further exported to major gold markets like London and Switzerland. The repeated melting and refining process makes it difficult for law enforcement agencies to track the origin of the gold and build a case against smugglers. Moreover, the documentary revealed the gold is often stamped in Switzerland in order to make it more marketable. This complexity means that it is hard to confirm the ethical and legal status of gold purchased on the open market.
Amjad Rihan, a former Ernst & Young partner who audited one of the world's largest gold refineries in Dubai, Kaloti, ten years ago, said that once the gold is refined, it is essentially considered new gold.
In 2020, a court in the United Kingdom ruled that Rihan was ousted from the company for whistleblowing, after he reported his findings of potential money laundering at Kaloti to his superiors. The court discovered that Ernst & Young attempted to conceal the evidence of Kaloti's money laundering, rather than acknowledging it.
The Gold Mafia revelations are not too dissimilar from the fraud case late last year involving millions of dollars, once again connected to the Zimbabwean gold industry. $65 million of foreign investment reportedly went missing in what was initially thought to be a legitimate business deal, but is now looking more like a scam using shell companies.
The deal allegedly involved a Singapore family office and a non-regulated Zimbabwean commercial entity called MasterDragon. A Singaporean businessman who introduced the family office to this deal, Mark Yong, has a questionable past, having been involved in a previous court case concerning Metallon Group. Yong has also faced allegations in Australia of defrauding a casino on the Gold Coast for $5 million.
Vice-President of Zimbabwe, Constantino Chiwenga, poses with Mark Yong (far right) and others.
Mr. Yong, who lists himself as a director of Damo Resources, a gold mining business in Zimbabwe, is thought to have used his Singapore links to first attract a business partner by the name of Carlos Salas, based in Taiwan, to the Zimbabwean gold deal. Salas is listed as Senior Partner & CEO of Coinful Capital, an investment fund with offices in Grand Cayman, Singapore and Hong Kong. Salas was thought to have played a key role in the gold deal scandal and defrauding foreign investors.
In May 2015, Carlos Salas was appointed as the director of Success Dragon International Limited, a Hong Kong-based gambling company registered in Bermuda that managed casinos in Vietnam. Mark Yong allegedly owned 27 percent of the company also in 2015, in addition to Salas. In 2013, the company was reportedly raided by Hong Kong anti-corruption agents.
Reports are now emerging that Yong and Salas are seeking partners for a new mining project in Zimbabwe.
Carlos Salas, former CEO of Success Dragon and current CEO of Coinful Capital and Prism Capital Management Limited.
Another case saw a Kenyan scam the owner of a gold trading firm based in Dubai into paying $2.5m for ‘confiscated gold’ from the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was later discovered the gold had reportedly never been confiscated and someone falsely impersonated the interior cabinet secretary in a ruse to get the Emirate to pay for the gold to be ‘released.’ The incident caused a diplomatic uproar between Kenya and the Emirates.
Al Jazeera’s four-part series, Gold Mafia, is based on dozens of undercover operations spanning three continents and thousands of documents. The investigation has exposed how these gangs help criminals around the world launder billions of dollars while aiding governments in circumventing international sanctions. The first episode, which aired on the 23rd of March 2023, received significant attention and the subsequent three episodes only increased public outcry. Watch all the episodes here.