How Ghana’s Name Popped In Gold Mafia’s Smuggling Conversation
A documentary on the smuggling of gold and money laundering by Aljazeera released in March had the name of Ghana pop up.
The documentary titled “The Gold Mafia” by the Investigative Unit of the media outlet depicted how gold is smuggled every month from Zimbabwe, Africa’s sixth-largest gold producer, to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), aiding money laundering.
It exposed some individuals affiliated with Zimbabwean government officials and the ruling party engrossed in the illegal venture.
Smuggling Of $40 Million Worth Of Gold From Ghana
The name of Ghana and other African countries emerged in one of the conversations between two alleged smugglers and undercover journalists who posed as gangsters who needed to launder money.
Before that conversation, the journalists told Ewan Alexander Macmillan, a gold trader and smuggler known as Mr Gold, about their quest to launder some money.
“There’s a lot of cash that we need to get out of Hong Kong and Macau.”
Macmillan- who went to prison in his twenties for illegally smuggling gold in Zimbabwe- promised to introduce the journalists to his partner after indicating that there were numerous ways to have their wish granted.
“There is an opportunity, a hell of a big opportunity to wash money here (Zimbabwe). You want US dollars in a bank account which could 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 and he can help you with how to bring the money here, no problem.
“I can give my partner gold in Dubai and he can just pay 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.”
Macmillan introduces them to Alistair Mathias, another gold trader and a financial architect who builds a money laundering scheme according to Aljazeera.
“I’ve been doing it for 13 years now”, he bragged.
He is then heard naming Ghana among the list of countries from where he smuggles gold to other parts of the world.
“In Ghana, I do $40 million every month out of Ghana. This region, I do probably 500 to one ton every month. I do roughly about $70 to $80 million every month. We can export from Zambia, we can export from South Africa.”
Denial
Alistair, however, took back his words when Aljazeera contacted him about his relations with Russia and Macmilan, and the smuggling of gold.
“Alistair Mathias denied that he designed mechanisms to launder money and said that he had not laundered money or traded illegal gold for Russian clients or anyone. He told us (Aljazeera) he had never had any working relationship with Ewan Macmillan”, the end of the first episode of the documentary said.
Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini
