Zimbabwean businessman and alleged gold smuggler Ewan Macmillan says he is done bribing politicians to smuggle gold out of the country.
Macmillan (aka Mr. Gold) was featured in the final episode of the Gold Mafia Al Jazeera documentary titled “Have The King With You” released on Friday, 14 April.
Speaking to the undercover journalists who posed as Chinese gangsters who wanted to wash dirty money, Macmillan said:
I will never go down that road again. You pay, you pay, you pay, you pay and you pay.
And you think this is so much money. Why am I paying this much money?
Meanwhile, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Ambassador at Large and Presidential Envoy to Europe and the Americas, Uebert Angel, was also filmed by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit) deriding Macmillan, saying he was no longer “Mr. Gold” and had been overtaken by his former employee Pedzisai “Scott” Sakupwanya.
Angel also showed the reporters pictures of Sakupwanya flaunting his US$5 million cash and some gold bars on 29 June 2020. He said:
He is the biggest gold guy in Zimbabwe. He’s right there, he’s in his house, sleeping on five million U.S. dollars.
This guy used to clean MacMillan’s car. Macmillan was the one that this one worked for. It’s good we know it’s Macmillan.
Macmillan doesn’t control nothing. This was his worker cleaning his car. He is the number one now in Zimbabwe.
Scott is number one. Number one without a doubt. We can just call him right now.
Angel then called Sakupwanya in the presence of the undercover reporters. He said:
So I’ve got some good investors for you here. They are hearing you already. From January, what have you gotten right now? What have you sold?
Scott said he had sold six tonnes of gold in 10 months. When Angel asked about what happens when someone invests with him, Sakupwanya said:
I guess I can take ten percent per month.
He said if he gets cash from someone, he gives them ten percent per month for the money they invest with him.
Scott said the investors are 100 per guaranteed to get a return for their investment.
On being asked by Angel how he moves the money back to the investor, he said:
It depends on where they are from. If they are from Dubai, I can pay into their Dubai account… Anywhere, anywhere in the world, I can manage to do the transfer. Not a problem for me.
According to Angel, Sakupwanya has managed to keep his wealth, and proceeds to gold, due to his loyalty to Mnangagwa. He said:
Because he is (pointing above, to indicate that he is Mnangagwa’s man) … and the president.
According to Al Jazeera, the gold smugglers carry Zimbabwe’s gold to Dubai, where it is then sold in exchange for clean cash.
This money is transferred to the bank accounts of the money launderers, who hand over an equivalent amount of their dirty dollars to the Zimbabwe government through the smugglers.
More: Pindula News