PHILLIMON MHLANGA
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is investigating prosperity preacher and philanthropist, Uebert Mudzanire also known as Uebert Angel and Zimbabwean gold dealer, Ewan MacMillan, on allegations of money laundering, Business Times can report.
The FIU this week instructed the Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC) to get as much information as possible from the insurance industry players on Angel and MacMillan’s insured assets held or disposed by the two directly or indirectly through companies or trusts for the period between January 1, 2020 and March 21,2023.
IPEC commissioner general, Grace Muradzika on Tuesday this week, wrote to all insurance companies to provide information on Angel and MacMillan
“IPEC is required in terms of the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act to coordinate with FIU in the assessment of the money laundering and terrorist financing risks to which the country is exposed.
Pursuant to that we are in receipt of an urgent communication from the FIU requesting all industry players to assist with information on insurance products, insured assets held or disposed by the above named individuals (Uebert Mudzanire alias Uebert Angel and Ewan MacMillan) directly or indirectly through companies or trusts during the period January 1, 2020 and March 21, 2023,” Muradzikwa said.
Players have to submit the information to IPEC by midday today.
All efforts to get a comment from Angel and MacMillan were futile.
The FIU, which was established in 2004 in terms of Section 3 of the Bank Use Promotion and Suppression of Money Laundering Act (Chapter 24:24), bears the primary responsibility of ensuring Anti-Money Laundering/ Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) compliance. It works in close cooperation with supervisory or regulatory bodies of the various types of designated reporting institutions to ensure that the regulated entities comply with their AML/CFT obligations.
The Unit also works with relevant stakeholders in ensuring the investigation, prosecution, conviction of criminal offenders and confiscation of recovered assets or funds.
The directive comes as Al Jazeera will today air a documentary on how minerals were being salted out of the country allegedly with the blessing of senior government officials.
It also comes as Zimbabwe is losing millions of dollars through gold smuggling into South Africa and the Middle East, especially Dubai.
Illicit financial flows are restricting Zimbabwe ‘s economy promoting corruption and enriching members of the elite at the expense of the ordinary Zimbabweans.
In a snippet of an Al Jazeera documentary, MacMillan spoke of money laundering and gold smuggling in Zimbabwe using private planes allegedly with the blessing of politicians and senior government officials and their cronies.
Angel, the leader of Spirit Embassy Church, who also serves as Zimbabwe’s ambassador at large, was fingered as one of the key figures in the scam.
In the snippets, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is described as a vehicle of money laundering, an allegation the central bank has vehemently denied threatening to take “appropriate” legal action or initiate necessary “sanctions against the interviewees” and “purveyors of the fake news to protect its fiduciary responsibilities in the national interest”. It could not be established if the FIU probe is the first step as the central bank moves to sanction the interviewees.
