Tagwirei Unfazed By Allegations Of Buying Mines With Fake Invoices And Fronts
Zimbabwean presidential advisor Kudakwashe Tagwirei has said he is unmoved by allegations that he bought nickel and gold mines with fake invoices and fronts worth R431m in 2019.
The Sentry and Open Secrets released a report titled “Fronts, Fakes, and Façades: How South African and Mauritian Enablers Helped Move Millions from Zimbabwe to Britain”. According to the report, Tagwirei used his relationships to gain state contracts and receive favoured access to hard currency. The report alleges that he moved suspicious funds from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) using fronts, false invoices, and offshore financial façades.
Tagwirei stands accused of using enablers from South African company directors, a Mauritian management company agent and a Cayman Islands investment fund. This was done to conceal the source of the final £8.7 million payment, and the report also alleges that the president of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, and the permanent secretary at the finance ministry, George Guvamatanga, “took a close interest in Sotic’s affairs”.
Capital Horizons, a Mauritian company linked to the money transfers, responded to The Sentry, saying it dealt with Christopher Fourie who was once hired by Tagwirei to establish Sotic. Said Capital Horizons:
When conducting media searches, Capital Horizons established that Mr Tagwirei and his company were partners of the Davos World Economic Forum Summit; he was involved in a limited number of commercial disputes; and he was subject to adverse comments from the political opposition party in Zimbabwe.
These results were mitigated by reasonable explanations and the clear unreliability of the politically motivated statements.
Capital Horizons addressed the commercial disputes with Mr Tagwirei and obtained from his lawyers an undertaking that he was not subject to any criminal or administrative investigations.
The company says Tagwirei did not appear in the ownership of Almas Opportunity Fund, which owns 65% of Sotic. In response to inquiries by News24, Tagwirei said:
I know that you already know that I don’t comment on such distractions.
In 2020, the US sanctioned Kudakwashe Tagwirei for materially assisting senior Zimbabwean government officials involved in public corruption. He is accused of using his relationships to gain state contracts and favoured access to hard currency. The US referred to him as a notoriously corrupt Zimbabwean businessman.
