Gold Mafia 4: Mathias says Ghana president is his friend and lawyer

In the final episode of the undercover investigations of gold smuggling in Africa by the Investigative Unit of Al Jazeera, one of the main characters in the video – Alistair Mathias, described by the undercover reporters as a Financial Architect, told the reporters posing as Chinese criminals seeking to launder dirty money that the president of Ghana is his friend and was his lawyer too.

Mathias who says he used to be the biggest in Ghana at one point, also told the reporters he used to take out about $40 million to $60 million worth of gold a month from Ghana.

“Ghana’s president is a good friend of mine. In fact, he was my lawyer,” Mathias was recorded saying.

The undercover reporters found one of the companies he had used is Ghana registered Guldrest Resources, a gold exporter which is documented in FinCEN Files. During the FinCEN Files investigations in 2020, the offices of Guldrest Resources couldn’t be traced, even though the company is registered in Ghana and is a member of the Chamber of Bullion Traders Ghana.

Mathias indicated that he knew the presidents of Zambia, the DRC, Cyril Ramophosa of South Africa, he said is his friend, and added that the Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa is his partner. “But I can’t say that publicly because he is under sanctions,” he said.

Ewan Macmillan, one of the subjects known as Mr Gold, added that Mnangagwa, they use his initials ED, is easy, and he knows him as well.

“Three months ago, I was sitting with him and chatting to him,” Macmillan said to the undercover reporters.

Telling undercover reporters how politicians everywhere including in Africa hide their money, he said they don’t keep assets in their own names, they use proxies. “Someone they can trust,” he said.

He further told the reporters. “In Ghana I take tenders, road construction, procurement, supplying different things, oil, this that.” He said by doing all that, the politicians are taken care of, and he could do all his things freely.

Mathias denied ever having any relationship with African politicians, or engaging in money laundering. He also denied ever being offered any tender by the Ghanaian government or doing any contracts for the government.

President Akufo-Addo also told Al Jazeera that he had no recollection of acting as a lawyer for Mathias or his company.

For the full details, watch the final part of the four series investigation that dug into the heart of the gold smuggling ring in Africa below.