The Gold Mafia

Al Jazeera (2023)

Film Review

This film series was made by undercover Al Jazeera reporters posing as gangsters seeking to launder illicit earnings from Hong Kong and Macau.

Episode 1 – The laundry service

The undercover gangsters interview a number of competing money launderers in Zimbabwe:

• Kamlesh Pattni – Africa’s most prominent money launderer, Pattni was first charged with money laundering in Kenya. After the trial collapsed, he relocated to Zimbabwe and founded a new evangelical church, where he’s known as Brother Paul.
• Uebert Angel – described as the head of the “diplomatic mafia,” Angel’s presently Zimbabwe’s ambassador at large (to 85 countries), as well as a prophet who predicts football scores and heals the sick. Very instrumental in funding President Mnangagwa’s election campaigns.
• Ewan Mcmillan – white gold trader first charged (along with father) for money laundering at age 21.
• Simon Rudland – also launders gold dollars (also with the approval of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe) through his company Gold Leaf Tobacco.

The money laundering scheme described to the undercover reports involves converting illicit foreign funds to Zimbabwean gold, which is then transported by couriers to Dubai in exchange for US dollars. Dubai also launders gold tax free (with approval from the Dubai central bank) for Russia, Ghana, Zambia, Ghana, Mozambique, Angola, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and DRC.

Pattni’s and McMillan’s gold money laundering schemes to Zimbabwean gold are officially authorized by the (privately owned) Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, largely because US sanctions make it impossible for Zimbabwe to access US dollars or other foreign currencies by legal means. In fact, Pattni is licensed to buy gold on behalf of Zimbabwe’s central bank. He then delivers the gold to Fidelity Printers and Refiners, which is owned by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

The Gold Mafia obtain gold either from small scale miners (the source of 40% of Zimbabwean gold) or from President Mnangagwa’s niece Henrietta Rushwaya, who heads the Zimbabwe Miners Federation. She sells money launderers gold at a 4% discount and launders the money through Fidelity Printers and Refiners.

Couriers transport billions of dollars of gold via Zimbabwe’s airport in Harare because security professionals are bribed to look the other way.

Episode #2 Smoke and Mirrors

This episode features meetings between undercover reporters and Angel regarding a personal meeting with Mnangawa, who they refer to as Number One in the Gold Mafia. Required before the money laundering deal can be approved, this will require a $US 200,000 “appreciation” fee.

This episode also explores the role Rudland and Gold Leaf Tobacco plays in selling illicit cigarettes on the black market in South Africa and using the proceeds to invest in gold to export to Dubai.

Another key player in South Africa is Mohamed Khan (aka Mo Dollars), who uses South Africa’s Sasfin Bank and Standard Bank to help gangsters launder illicit funds. He does so via regular bribes to their foreign exchange banks and to Sasfin IT technicians who wipes Mo’s illicit transactions from official bank records.

At a second meeting, Angel suggests the undercover reporters they launder some of their illicit funds by investing in a new hotel near Victoria Falls.

We learn Rutland also owns Vantage Leaf in Mauritius, which also uses gold to launder dirty money, selling the gold for US dollars, which he deposits in a Swiss bank account.

Episode 3 – El Dorado

We now learn that Pattni also owns the company in Dubai that buys his gold. After arriving in Dubai, the Zimbabwean gold is melted down to be exported to London and Swtizerland, where it’s officially stamped as British or Swiss gold.

The filmmakers interview a United Arab Emirates (UAE) auditor who reported Dubai’s Kaloti refinery* as being 50% non-compliant with UAE laws about sourcing gold from Zimbabwe and other countries under sanction. After UAE authorities fobbed him off, he filed suit in a British court against the British financial services company AY (responsible for importing Kaloti gold) and won $11 million in damages.

After the UAE suspended Kaloti’s license, the company simply rebranded themselves as MTM&O Gold.

Gold Leaf Tobacco owns its own refinery in South Africa. Pattni owns 500+ companies in 12 countries and also smuggles diamonds and works as a securities trader for numerous trusts who hold offshore accounts.

We also earn the appreciation fee to meet with Mnanagawa has increased to $1 million US dollars.

*Kaloti refines 50% of the gold imported from Zimbabwe (which makes up 40% of the UAE’s GDP).

Episode 4 – Have the King with You

The final episode explores Mo Money’s relationship with the late Zulu king Zulatini during Jacob Zuma’s presidency. Zulatini had a lot of influence over Zuma, who relied on the king to deliver Zulu votes. Mo Money also had close ties with Thandan Mbetse, a nephew of South Africa’s former finance minister, as well as South Africa’s UBS Bank, HSBC Bank and the Gupta family (whose links to Zuma resulted in his resignation in 2018). According to whistleblowers the undercover reporters interview, the Gupta family directed a number of state contracts to Mo and his brothers.

The journalists also learn Africa’s gold mafia also launders money via Hong Kong and the Ganzhou district. In general, once funds enter the Republic of China they can no longer be traced.

In the final scenes, we learn that Rudland and Mo Dollars are being investigated in South Africa; that Pattni is setting up gold  operations in Venezuela (after helping Madura circumvent US sanctions); and that the whistleblowers interviewed in the series have gone into hiding.