Al Jazeera’s recent undercover report has revealed that Ghana serves as one of the many conduits used for money laundering by one ‘financial architect’.
The exposé dubbed “Gold Mafia” recorded Ewan Macmillan, a retired Zimbabwean businessman also known as “Mr Gold” in the shady business, recommending his Canadian colleague, Alistair Mathias, to the undercover reporters who sought his assistance to launder money.
“There is an opportunity, a hell of a big opportunity to wash money here. You want US dollars in a bank account which would be better to have a bank account in Dubai, US dollars. The best thing is to meet my partner from Dubai. He knows how we do things here. He can help you with how you can bring the money here, no problem. I can give my partner gold in Dubai and he can just pay you anywhere in the world.
I need him to come up with a plan of how to wash your money. And he’s clever. He washes money for the Russians,” Mr Macmillan said.
It was during the encounter with Mr Alistair Mathias, who is based in Dubai, that it was revealed that some African countries have been heavily utilised for close to 13 years for money laundering.
Ghana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia and Mozambique are just a few regions Alistair Mathias exploits to launder money.
“I’ve been doing it for about 13 years now, 14 years. In Ghana I do one ton. I do $40 million every month out of Ghana,” Mr Mathias said.
Mr Alistair Mathias, with the period given, has smuggled gold worth 6,720 billion out of Ghana.
“This region (Zimbabwe), I do probably about 500 to one ton again. I do roughly about $70 to $80 million every month. We can export from Zambia. I can export from South Africa,” he is recorded to have said.
The report does not provide additional information such as the mode in which he is able to launder money and the agents that aid this work.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera has released the second episode of the four-part investigative series into gold smuggling in Africa.
Source: The Independent Ghana