The world’s wealthy countries often criticise African nations for
corruption – especially that perpetrated by those among the continent’s
government and business leaders who abuse their positions by looting
tens of billions of dollars in national assets or the profits from
state-owned enterprises that could otherwise be used to relieve the
plight of some of the world’s poorest peoples.
Yet the West is culpable too in that it often looks the other way
when that same dirty money is channeled into bank accounts in Europe and
the US.
International money laundering regulations are supposed to stop the
proceeds of corruption being moved around the world in this way, but it
seems the developed world’s financial system is far more tempted by the
prospect of large cash injections than it should be.
Indeed the West even provides the getaway vehicles for this theft, in
the shape of anonymous off-shore companies and investment entities,
whose disguised ownership makes it too easy for the corrupt and
dishonest to squirrel away stolen funds in bank accounts overseas.
This makes them nigh on impossible for investigators to trace, let alone recover.
It is something that has long bothered Zimbabwean journalist Stanley
Kwenda - who cites the troubling case of the Marange diamond fields in
the east of his country.
A few years ago rich deposits were discovered there which held out
the promise of billions of dollars of revenue that could have filled the
public purse and from there have been spent on much needed improvements
to roads, schools and hospitals.
The surrounding region is one of the most impoverished in the
country, desperate for the development that the profits from mining
could bring. But as Kwenda found out from local community leader Malvern
Mudiwa, this much anticipated bounty never appeared.
“When these diamonds came, they came as a God-given gift. So we
thought now we are going to benefit from jobs, infrastructure, we
thought maybe our roads were going to improve, so that generations and
generations will benefit from this, not one individual. But what is
happening, honestly, honestly it’s a shame!”
What is happening is actually something of a mystery because though
the mines are clearly in operation and producing billions of dollars
worth of gems every year, little if any of it has ever been put into
Zimbabwe’s state coffers.
Local and international non-governmental organisations say they
believe this is because the money is actually being used to maintain
President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union –
Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) in power.
True or not, it is clear that the country’s finance minister, Tendai
Biti, has seen none of it. A representative of the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change, which sits in uneasy coalition with ZANU-PF, he
says he has no idea where it is going.
“We have got evidence of the quantities that are being mined, the
quantities that are being exported but nothing is coming to the fiscus
…. All I know is that it’s not coming to the treasury. So that is a
self-evident question. It is not coming to us. That means someone is
getting it. The person who is getting it is not getting it legally.
Therefore, he’s a thief, therefore she’s a thief.”
Sadly, as Stanley Kwenda has realised, it is typical of a problem found all over Africa.
The continent is rich is natural resources that are being exploited
for big profits, but the money is rarely used for the benefit of the
people. Instead it goes to line the pockets of corrupt officials who
then often smuggle it out to be deposited in secret offshore bank
accounts in the developed world.
So who facilitates these transactions? And how and why does the developed world make it so easy to launder this dirty cash?
In this revealing investigation for
People & Power,
Kwenda and the Ghanaian undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, set
off to find out. Posing as a corrupt Zimbabwean official and his lawyer,
their probe takes them deep into the murky world of ‘corporate service
providers’ - experts in the formation of company structures that allow
the corrupt to circumvent lax international money laundering rules.
It just so happens that the pair’s enquiries take place in the
Seychelles but, as they discover to their horror, they could just as
easily be in any one of a number of offshore locations (or even in the
major cities of Europe and the US) where anonymous companies can be set
up for the express purpose of secretly moving money and keeping its
origins hidden from prying eyes.
Film maker’s view
By Anas Aremeyaw Anas
Despite the abundance of resources on the continent, success has been
very elusive for many Africans. The narrative is one many are too
familiar with: corrupt leaders force themselves into political office,
then they work to undermine the progress of their people.
That is what leaves many African countries poor – corrupt leadership. It hinders progress.
What has kept this diagnosis of Africa from a cure is not immediately
clear. Foreign aid, debt relief and the many notes of economic
salvation have been applied. Not much has changed. Dreams fail for many
young Africans. The trouble with Africa still looms large.
The need for Africa’s troubled state has inspired my career as an undercover investigative journalist.
Over the past decade, I have tried to focus on human rights
violations, corruption and the many ills that plague society. Through
many anti-human trafficking and anti-corruption stories, I have come
close to answers.
Exposing bribe-taking police officers, public officials and other
corrupt individuals has brought some change. This has been on the
ground, yet many of the problems still persist.
This film,
How to Rob Africa, takes this further by focusing on what many leaders in high office do that leaves the continent in a bad shape.
Decades into political independence, many African governments remain
reliant on foreign aid, yet often as soon as this aid arrives it is
spirited away into the personal accounts of the leaders who are supposed
to be looking after the interests of their people - and ironically many
of those accounts are back in the West.
It is no surprise that many Africans are left asking the developed
world: “Why do you frown publicly about corruption, yet turn a blind eye
to its fruits?”
What we sought to do in our investigation was to point in the
direction of money laundering as a substantial contributor to Africa’s
corruption - or at least one of the most important enabling factors -
and the role played by corporate service providers in setting up
structures to allow it to take place.
In the Seychelles, we found how easy it is to rob Africa. We learned
about the clever but brazen tricks and scams that can be used (for a
fee) to disguise the origins of money and the identities of those who
are moving it around.
We do not say that all of Africa’s woes are the fault of others
outside the continent. Nor do we assume that criminality is the only
reason why Africa, despite its many natural riches, has been kept in
poverty.
But we did come away wondering why the outside world feeds Africa
with one hand and takes from it with another. Why cannot the resources
for aid be directed into fighting this obvious problem? Is it not about
time that something was done to stop those stealing our wealth, and
those helping them steal it, from evading responsibility prosecution for
their crimes?
Source; newsrescue.com
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