The Zimbabwean government on Tuesday, April 4, responded to an exposé, Gold Mafia, by Al Jazeera that uncovered a gold and money laundering scandal in that country.
One of the main figures in the scandal was Kamlesh Pattni who is accused of facilitating the gold smuggling.
Pattni is infamous for the Goldenberg scandal that rocked Kenya in the 1990s, which saw the country lose billions of shillings.
“Government takes the allegations which are raised in this documentary seriously and have directed relevant organs to institute investigations into the issues raised therein.
“Any person found to have engaged in acts of corruption, fraud or any form of crime, will face the full wrath of the law,” noted the Zimbabwe Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa.
The minister is the highest-ranking government official to respond to the allegations.
Zimbabwe has been reeling under an economic crisis after Western nations such as the United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK) imposed economic sanctions on the country in 2002.
According to the documentary, the gold smuggling allegedly involved Kamlesh Pattni together with government officials close to Zimbabwe’s president, Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The leadership of the cash-strapped country is accused of using gold smuggling and money laundering in order to bring US dollars into the country.
In March 2023, the spokesperson for the ruling party Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), Chris Mutsvangwa, came out guns blazing trashing the documentary.
“The country’s detractors, who coalesced around George Soros and his Open Society Institute of Southern Africa are clearly miffed and terribly disappointed that Zimbabwe has reverted to and resurrected gold as the reference anchor of the US Dollar,” Mutsvangwa divulged in a statement.
Two parts of the four-part series were released in March 2023 while the next two parts will be released in April 2023.
Kamlesh Pattni, was one of the masterminds of a gold smuggling scandal in Kenya where he used the company Goldenberg. The plot roped in former President Daniel Moi and other officials in his government.
The man later led a low-key life and became a self-proclaimed pastor using the name, Brother Paul.
He was charged in court concerning the Goldenberg scandal but was later acquitted of all charges.
