The second report also published by the Daily Maverick was in June. The Maverick said Africa Risk Consulting had published a 50-page report, titled Zimbabwe Political Economy Stakeholder Map. It said the report was confidential and was not available online but it talked about how Zimbabwe was rapidly moving toward a Russian-style oligarchical system and how it was becoming a regional hub for laundering illicit wealth that was fuelling violent conflict. The report, the Maverick said, listed nine top “business acolytes” as Kudakwashe Tagwirei; Nic Van Hoogstraten; Billy Rautenbach; the late John Bredenkamp; Zunaid Moti; Tafadzwa Musarara; Kamlesh Pattni; the Macmillan family and Simon Rudland.
The Sentry, a United States-based non-profit, which says it is an investigative and policy team that follows the dirty money connected to African war criminals and transnational war profiteers and was founded by actor George Clooney and John Prendergast, came up with a 38-page report entitled: Shadows and Shell Games-Uncovering an Offshore Business Empire in Zimbabwe.
In its introduction to the report it says Kudakwashe Tagwirei’s business empire of more than 40 companies has mostly been hidden from the public eye.
“By analyzing hundreds of company documents, court filings, and communications, The Sentry’s investigation shows how Tagwirei used complex corporate structures to build and hide his wealth, potentially benefiting from preferential government treatment along the way,” it says.
“Tagwirei has invested in gold, nickel, platinum, and chrome mines by hiding behind South African businesspeople and offshore structures in Mauritius and the Cayman Islands and by using lawyers and financiers who are seemingly happy to turn a blind eye to accusations of cronyism and corruption.”
Last month, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project which is headquartered in Sarajevo, Bosnia, released another expose on Tagwirei entitled: How a Zimbabwe Tycoon Made a Fortune from a Trafigura Partnership and Spiralling National Debt.
The report says Kudakwashe “Tagwirei, who is close to Zimbabwe’s President and his inner circle, leveraged his privileged access to fuel and mining markets to strike a lucrative partnership with commodities giant Trafigura. Sanctioned by the US and UK for corruption, Tagwirei continued to do business by relocating his network to Mauritius.”
It says: “Tagwirei has earned at least US$100 million in fees from a partnership with Swiss-based Trafigura. Together, they have profited extensively by dominating Zimbabwe’s fuel market since 2013.
“Trafigura quietly extended $1 billion in loans to the Zimbabwean government, at exorbitant interest rates.
“As controversy grew, Tagwirei moved his business network offshore to Mauritius, where he secured a new near-monopoly fuel deal with the government. He is still active in mining and fuel deals in Zimbabwe.”
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