By Staff Reporter
Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has said it is closely following the explosive Al Jazeera docuseries aired by the international news channel exposing gold smuggling cartels and money laundering schemes.
Following the broadcast of the first of four episodes shot by Al Jazeera Investigations Unit, having infiltrated large gold-smuggling rings revealing a giant money laundering scheme, the corruption busters in a brief Twitter post, acknowledged the revelations in the film.
“ZACC is closely following the Al Jazeera broadcast,” the commission said.
Titled ‘The Laundry Service,’ the documentary exposes how hundreds of millions worth of gold was being smuggled to Dubai by individuals with connections to the highest offices.
Some of the high ranking officials implicated include, Zimbabwe Miners Federation president Henrietta Rushwaya and Ambassador-at-large Uebert Angel.
In the initial episode, Angel is seen offering his diplomat status to undercover Al Jazeera journalists posing as Chinese gangsters for use in smuggling of US$1.2 billion into Zimbabwe from Macau and Hong Kong.
The dirty money, smuggled via ‘headquarters’ in Dubai is then used to purchase gold from artisanal miners through government’s Fidelity Printers and Refiners (FPR) for sale out of the country.
This is alleged to be the New Dispensation’s ‘plan’ to bust sanctions.
In the video, the self-proclaimed Prophet, in cahoots with Rushwaya presents himself as the central figure in his interactions with Mr. Stanley, the undercover journalist.
“We have done maybe US$100 to US$300 million but not one billion per se,” claims Angel.
“I am the second largest diplomat in the country. You know I can carry him in a bag and no one can touch that bag, no one is allowed .
”Right now I can have a bag like this with US$1.2 billion and put a red tape written diplomat, that’s it.
“It is a very, very easy thing. It will land in Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe can’t touch it until it gets to my house.”
He however is not the only one involved in the process, according to the documentary hundreds of millions more worth of gold are being smuggled by similar syndicates.
Shadowy businessman Simon Rudland, Kenyan born Kamleshi Pattni who had to flee his country of birth for Zimbabwe and a series of couriers are implicated.
Documents from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and FPR are flung throughout the film to support agreements and purchases of gold between government and those implicated.
This is despite RBZ Governor John Mangudya’s fervent rebuttal of the allegations earlier this month.
