Joyce Mujuru used her daughter as a go-between to seek a deal for the
gold, according to Firstar, a commodities trader based in Britain,
which says that it was approached in November.
Mrs Mujuru, appointed by Robert Mugabe five years ago, is among the 200
Zimbabweans under European Union and United States sanctions for
alleged human rights abuses.
Firstar claims that Mrs Mujuru's daughter and Spanish son-in-law,
Nyasha and Pedro del Campo, offered to sell 3,700kg of gold for $90
million to Firstar Europe Ltd, a precious metal dealer. At the present
market rate, one kilo of gold sells for $30,700 (£21,500).
Mr del Campo allegedly e-mailed Firstar offering 3.7 tonnes of gold
nuggets with a certificate of origin from the Democratic Republic of
Congo and $15 million of diamonds without certification. He claimed to
represent two commodities companies, Onesafara International and
Berline Equities Corp. But over the course of the correspondence, it
allegedly came to light that the real seller was Mrs Mujuru.
Bernd Hagamann, the president of Firstar, told The Times: Our
investigations showed who was really involved in the deal  Mrs Mujuru
 who is on our blacklist. So we refused.
Mr Hagamann said that when he told Mrs del Campo that he would not buy
blood gold she offered to change the certificate of origin to Kenya.
We have no interest in buying gold from people running a country where
people are dying of cholera or from Congo, where the money from any
deal would be used to buy arms to kill more people, he said. This is
bloody gold. These people are criminals.
Mr Hagamann said that after refusing to go ahead with the deal and
telling the couple that he was reporting them to the authorities he
received a telephone call from Mrs Mujuru.
She said, Some people will visit your house. You and your daughter
will have problems'. But I was not afraid. It was funny. I told her she
would have problems coming to Europe.
Firstar posted the e-mail correspondence and documents concerning the
deal on its website, saying that it wished to deter other blacklisted
buyers. The documents included photographs of the gold nuggets and one
of 13 diamonds ranging from one to five carats. E-mails between Mrs del
Campo and Firstar detailed how the gold would be transported from
Nairobi to Zurich once Firstar had paid $100,000 for transportation
costs. A certificate of origin stated that the gold was from
Lubumbashi, an area of the Democratic Republic of Congo with links to
Zimbabwean officials.
The case raises concerns about attempts by members of unsavoury regimes
to break sanctions. Mrs Mujuru and her husband, Solomon, a former head
of the national army, are among the wealthiest and most powerful people
in Zimbabwe, with extensive mining interests, including the River Ranch
Diamond Mines. The World Diamond Council has accused the company of
trafficking blood diamonds by mixing them with Zimbabwean stones and
smuggling them to South Africa.
The United Nations has documented how leading members of the Mugabe
regime benefited from mining concessions granted by the former
Congolese leader Laurent Kabila in return for the help of Zimbabwean
troops during the 1998-2002 war.
The United Nations reported in December that 53 tonnes of munitions
were flown to Harare from Lubumbashi in August. As the Democratic
Republic of Congo does not manufacture ammunition, it must have arrived
from another country.
Mrs del Campo declined to comment but said that she was speaking to her lawyers.
Dirty commodities
 During the civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s, 4 per cent of the
world’s diamond production came from areas controlled by the country’s
warlords
 Profits from the trade in blood diamonds were used by warlords to buy
arms for wars in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo
 Illicit rough diamonds have been used by rebels to fund conflicts in Liberia, Ivory Coast and the Republic of Congo
 In 2008 the Swiss gold refiner Metalor launched a campaign in Colombia to prevent gold being used for tax evasion
 Turkey is reported to be the main supplier of smuggled gold to Europe
 The FDLR, a Hutu force waging civil war in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, funds itself by illegally trading minerals including the gold
that is mined there
UN, Amnesty International, Times archives
Post published in: News