Zimbabwean ambassador, Prophet Uebert Angel has been exposed for laundering millions of dollars through a gold-smuggling scheme from Zimbabwe to Dubai.
This was revealed through an undercover operation by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit.
Being appointed as ambassador-at-large and a presidential envoy by Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa in March 2021, Angel told reporters that he is in the capacity to carry large volumes of cash into the country using his diplomatic status.
“I’m an ambassador at large and an ambassador to 85 countries but on this special envoy am a representative of the president. That means i can sign contracts and treaties with government without the president getting involved, ” the acclaimed prophet told the reporters in the video during their investigations.
In furtherance to this, Angel assured the supposed Chinese criminals that a call on the president of miners association would make the gold readily available at the very minute he was speaking.
“You want gold, gold we can do it right now, we can make the call right now, and it’s done,” he bragged.
Under The vienna convention, states have agreed to exempt diplomatic languages from airport searches.
Hence, the diplomatic privilege used by Mr Angel to smuggle the gold items out of the country.
“Right now I can put a bag like this with 1.2 billion and put red tape written, diplomat. That it. It is a very very easy thing, it will land in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe can’t touch it until i get to my house.”
So far the president of Zimbabwe is yet to speak on the matter.
Zimbabwean journalist and anti-corruption activist, Hopewell Chin’ono in a live interview with a journalist commended the international media for putting out a not new exposé but this time with a detailed evidence on camera.
“ What Aljazeera has done which we were not able to do is to put the evidence and have the people themselves speaking of how they are involved in looting of public funds, the smuggling of natural resources and the laundering of monies used in state institutions in the documentary”
For him, he has been thrown into prison on three occasions for obvious reasons thus, most journalists who come across similar information hesitate to put it out for the fear of putting their lives in danger.
Meanwhile the ruling party has shared a post refuting the accusations leveled against the government official, Mr Chin’ono mentioned.
Apparently, Uebert Angel’s ambassadorial appointment by the president in 2021 obliged him to bring investments into Zimbabwe because the country’s own currency has lost value in international trade due to hyperinflation.
Thus a commodity like gold is a good way to earn dollars, but international sanctions imposed on the country make it difficult for the government to export gold because of the additional scrutiny on officials in power.
“So you have to figure out other ways to do that,” Karen Greenaway, a former FBI investigator who tracks international money laundering schemes, told Al Jazeera. One way around: individual gold miners, who don’t face those restrictions.
This scenario makes Zimbabwe fertile ground for money launderers who can help the country earn dollars in exchange for gold.
Head of the Zimbabwe Miners Association, Henrietta Rushwaya, is at the center of Angel’s operations trading gold for illegal currency. On a phone call with Angel and the reporters, Rushwaya, who is also the niece of President Mnangagwa, said that smuggling 100kg of gold each week would be simple.
The idea would need an initial filthy cash investment of $10 million into Fidelity, the government’s gold refinery. Fidelity would set aside $5 million of the total as a reserve during the con, and the remaining amount would be used to purchase gold every week.
A further $5 million would be brought in to purchase more gold after the first purchase, and so on until all the money had been laundered into the precious metal, which would then be sold globally for legal, clean money.