Gold Mafia: British MP urges investigation and freezing of funds of citizens caught on camera
A British member of the House of Lords, Baron Oates of Denby Ganges has called on the authorities to investigate three citizens caught on camera in Gold Mafia, the undercover investigation by Al Jazeera Investigative Unit.
The three individuals are Uebert Angel, Rikki Doolan and Kamlesh Pattni all of them holding British citizens.
Speaking in Parliament, he made reference to Al Jazeera secretly filming Zimbabwe officials and business contacts conspiring to launder illicit funds.
“Those filmed included at least three British Citizens, Uebert Angel, Rikki Doolan and Kamlesh Pattni who made clear on camera their willingness to act corruptly.
I hope that the National Crime Agency is investigating the activities of these individuals and others named in the documentary and the sources of their wealth and that the authorities won’t hesitate to freeze their funds while the investigations are being pursued,” he said.
Angel in different meetings with undercover reporters who identified themselves as Chinese criminals seeking to wash dirty money through the Zimbabwean economy, was caught on hidden camera waxing lyrical, and assuring them that they were in safe hands because unofficially, he is the number two man in Zimbabwe and has the full blessings of the president of the country to sign agreements on behalf of Zimbabwe.
Baron Oates of Denby Grange refers to #GoldMafia investigation in the British parliament.
He urges Britain’s national police @NCA_UK to investigate and freeze the assets of UK citizens exposed in the documentary series. pic.twitter.com/7LvRRvN2Fm— Al Jazeera Investigations (@AJIunit) May 11, 2023
When the undercover reporters told him they wanted to launder over a billion dollars, Angel told them he has laundered several millions before, but never done billions, however, he could launder their billions, with his diplomatic red tape and the money would be delivered directly to his home and nobody would touch it.
He also assured them that they would have no problem at all freely buying and selling gold from Zimbabwe in the money laundering schemes.
When President Emmerson Mnangagwa, appointed Angel Presidential Envoy and Ambassador-at-Large, issues came up in the news about his double identity.
News sources in Zimbabwe found he has two national ID cards. The first ID card has the registration number 83-099297X83, and was reported to have been issued at the Zaka registry offices in Masvingo in 1996. The second card with the registration number 29-195587H83, was said to have been issued in Gweru in the Midlands a year later.
The date of birth on both cards is the same, September 6, 1978, but the card numbers are different.
Doolan, who is an assistant to Angel at his church, where they are both pastors, is related to Angel by marriage.
He was caught in the camera asking for facilitation fees of $200,000 to set up a meeting with undercover reporters posing as Chinese criminals seeking to launder dirty money.
In the first episode of the four-part investigation by the Investigative Unit of Al Jazeera titled ‘Gold Mafia’, a rival of Pattni, Ewan Macmillan described him as the number one gold smuggler in Africa, and he Macmillan is number two, he says.
Pattni was secretly recorded telling undercover reporters that with the money he made from the heist, he was able to keep arap Moi in power in Kenya.
By Emmanuel K Dogbevi
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