![]() “He gives Fidelity the money, to buy the gold, for him to export,” fellow Zimbabwean gold smuggler Ewan Macmillan said in secretly recorded interviews, claiming that Rudland “bankrolls the whole country”.Īt the centre of Rudland’s money laundering operations is a company in Dubai called Aulion that buys Zimbabwean gold using his dirty cash. In exchange, Fidelity Printers and Refiners, the Zimbabwe central bank’s refinery, lets his couriers carry millions of dollars of gold to Dubai for sale through frequent trips. But in 2022, the South African Revenue Service accused Rudland’s company of selling illicit cigarettes and avoiding taxes.Īl Jazeera’s investigation shows that his web of crime extends far beyond that, to an elaborate money laundering and gold smuggling scheme that helps him hide millions of dollars of unaccounted cash.ĭocuments and witness statements reveal that Rudland also loans some of his money to Zimbabwe’s government, which is cash-strapped because of Western sanctions. One of Zimbabwe’s richest men, Rudland co-owns Gold Leaf Tobacco, among the largest cigarette manufacturers in South Africa. Simon Rudland is one of Zimbabwe’s richest men and the owner of Gold Leaf Tobacco Simon Rudland ![]() Now, in Part 2, meet one of the region’s biggest cigarette moguls, a showoff money launderer and their crafty partners who are plundering their nations of money and gold using a web of highly-placed connections, front companies and carefully doctored documents. Last week, Part 1 of ‘Who are the Gold Mafia?‘ dove into the lives of some of Southern Africa’s biggest money launderers and smugglers, from pastors to diplomats. Al Jazeera’s latest investigation, The Gold Mafia, brings their crimes out into the open.
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