When Emmerson ‘the crocodile’ Mnangagwa ascended to power after the toppling of long-time leader Robert Mugabe, a little known oil retailer and trader Kudakwashe Tagwirei emerged almost immediately.
The July Issue of The Sentry report titled, ‘Shadows and Shell games: Uncovering an offshore Business Empire in Zimbabwe”, tells the story of corruption and state capture.
In the closing years of Robert Mugabe’s reign and just after Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ascent to the presidency, Tagwirei’s Sakunda Holdings received more than $1.6 billion in contracts and procurement deals from Zimbabwe’s government.
This was through preferential treatment that The Sentry report exposes as an ‘offshore business empire’ that uses and has entrenched cronyism at the expense of other economic actors.
The shell companies that are used for money laundering and in undertaking contracts from the Zimbabwean govt have global tied.
Tagwirei, who now presides over 40 companies spanning the oil, mining, banking, logistics, transportation, and import/export sectors, is allegedly hiding behind South African businessmen.
The money is hid in in Mauritius, and offshore financial arrangements in the Cayman Islands.
One of the most important entities in Tagwirei’s corporate labyrinth was Sotic International, a holding company based in Mauritius. Sotic’s strategy was to use Tagwirei’s wealth to buy local Zimbabwean companies that earned hard currency through mining exports and then use those dollars to import fuel and other commodities into Zimbabwe.
The Sentry
Corruption
The presidential advisor has used his position well to bypass a lot of scrutiny and legal challenges. One such is that after he was exposed for corruption, Tagwirei is reported to have moved his assets from one of his key firms Sotic International to then-little-known Zimbabwean firm called Kuvimba Mining House.
Ironically, The company records of Kuvimba Mining House are not available in Zimbabwe’s company registry, and Ziwa Investments appears not to exist.
It even raises more questions how a state-controled firm bought assets from the sanctioned businessman.
The Sentry used court documents and communications and interviews to unearth the dangerous potential that the businessman is financing the Zimbabwean military off-budget.
In 2019, Tagwirei paid millions of dollars to a Zimbabwean military-owned company so that Landela Mining Ventures, a company he controlled, could purchase 50% of Great Dyke Investments (GDI), a platinum mine worth hundreds of millions and run as a joint venture with a Russian firm. The payment raises fears about off-budget financing of Zimbabwe’s abusive and partisan military.
Download and read the whole report here
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