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Kaelin Choto
Herald Correspondent
Zimbabwean businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei’s business empire recently took unprecedented shocks in a protracted attack by ‘economic hitmen’ as the Western ploy to truncate the country’s economy deepens.

Opposition leaders and the country’s adversaries took to the mainstream and social media hyping the supposed expose’ by The Sentry, a publication that claimed to have unearthed a web for looting Zimbabwe’s natural resources led by Tagwirei.

There was to be a deafening cheer leading of the expose’ by the international media, ft.com as it screamed ‘The Offshore hive of Zimbabwe’s Queen Bee’ publishing the article for free. Locally, The Zimbabwean and NewsDay respectively ran articles under the headlines ‘Dismantling Zimbabwe’s kleptocracy: Report lifts lid on Kuda Tagwirei’s offshore dealings and sanction avoiding strategies, and Kuvimba, Tagwirei & the complex web of questionable.’

Nevertheless, Zimbabwe has had epic episodes of economic embargoes since the inception of the Land Reform Programme (LRP) at the instigation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and it seems the machinations continue mutating and taking new shape each time.

This time around, the war has been brought at the door steps of those individuals that are aiding in the resurrection of the national economy. An old adage goes, ‘give a dog a bad name and let him hang.’ As such, Tagwirei’s empire had to be declared shadowy, corrupt and a money laundering scheme. All his assets and business links were to be listed in the report decorated by a flurry of allegations and accusations punctuated by the random tagging of the US’ Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Note that one of the tools in effecting sanctions is assets forfeiture and bank account freezing.

One would expect the alleged illegality of Tagwirei’s business empire to play out in the report, but alas, it is all about recommending OFAC and similar organizations to ‘investigate’ possible money laundering, corruption and sanctions evasion stratagems. This is followed by requests for advisories aimed at scaring away companies from doing business with any organisation or company associated with Tagwirei. The report mentions the existence of Tagwirei’s Swiss account, but it is not availed in any part of its sections.

However, the moves by The Sentry dovetail with the agitations by MDC-A’s co-vice leader, Tendai Biti and Job Sikhala’s calls for the continued exclusion of Zimbabwe from accessing international lines of credit. The call for the alienation of Zimbabwe certainly began at home and is being propelled from there, but not without the help of a team of witch hunters.

The witch hunters’ team

A look at the list of the publication’s management makes an interesting reading. It is comprised of individuals who have held high positions in the US government and had been deployed in various missions across Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo being one of them. Put differently, the publication is driven by people who are very familiar with the American government’s economic interests across the globe.

The Sentry is listed as having been co-founded by prominent Hollywood actor, George Clooney, and John Prendergast and was established in 2016. Its declared mandate is following up on dirty money connected to African war criminals and transnational war profiteers with the aim of shutting down those that benefit from violation of the international financial system. Prendergast is a former Director of the US National Security Council.

One of the directors of The Sentry’s General Counsel, Brad Brooks-Rubin who previously served as State’s Department special advisor for conflict diamonds, is an attorney advisor at the Treasury Department’s Office of Chief Counsel (Foreign Assets Control), and at the Gemological Institute of America. Also listed as constituting The Sentry’s management is Justyna Gudzowska, who is the publication’s Director of Illicit Finance Policy. She is an attorney with working experience as lead sanctions lawyer at Morgan Stanley, where she specialized in countering the financing of terrorism at the United Nations (UN) and as an attorney advisor for the Department of the Treasury’s OFAC.

Other individuals that make up The Sentry team include Senior Investigator, Debra Laprevotte, who is former Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) agent and prominent Hollywood actors that make up the publication’s board members include Matt Damon and Brad Pitt.

Given the career backgrounds of some of The Sentry’s managers such as Brooks-Rubin and Gudzowska, it is imperative to note that the witch hunting on Tagwirei is far divorced from sincerity or the well-being of Zimbabwe’s economy. Instead it is an enhancement of the economic hitmen’s ploy to make the country’s economy scream.

Notably, The Sentry is also involved with international organisations that include AURORA Humanitarian Initiative, CAPCON Foundation, CLOONEY Foundation for Justice and Journalists (Foundation for International Investigations of Crime against Media), The PITTSBURGH Foundation and Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) among others.

Swooping on Zimbabwe’s economy through Tagwirei

Given the links with organisations such as OFAC and OSISA, it is instructive to note that the report by The Sentry is designed to push for a further clampdown on Zimbabwe by way of identifying and freezing Tagwirei’s assets, links and offshore accounts. The ploy plays out in the first and second recommendations of the report, where it encourages investigations into Tagwirei’s transactions and business networks in South Africa and Mauritius before suggesting that the probing be done in close liaison with the United States.

The report sets off by chronicling Tagwirei’s alleged unlimited access, privilege and special treatment by authorities including the ability to contact the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) at short notice where he is depicted as getting preferential access to hard currency. According to the report, all this make up the allegations of State capture in Zimbabwe. Basically, the epitome of the report is to bring the New Dispensation on its knees by clamping down on any efforts aimed at enhancing economic growth by crippling corporates and individuals that are participating in economic turnaround.

The economic clampdown is further elaborated in the third recommendation where the report agitates for the issuance of advisories on the risks of doing business with Zimbabwe particularly the mining sector with emphasis on sanctions evasion, money laundering and corruption. This part of the report seeks to scare away potential investors in Zimbabwe and undoing the ‘Zimbabwe is open for business’ policy position by Government.

Delving onto the evidence presentation in the report, The Sentry, in its submission, does not provide an audit trail of transactions proving the alleged money laundering and corruption crimes concerned. Instead, the report only lists Tagwirei’s business associates, subsidiary companies, investments and supply chain. However, these do not constitute a crime or fraud by any means save for the sanctions evasion mantra highlighted all over in the report.

Confession of a baseless witch hunt

The diagrammatic presentations in the report only depict Tagwirei’s share ownerships in a number of companies and their subsidiaries. No evidence is presented to substantiate unorthodox business dealings by Tagwirei. This is further evidenced by the recommendations tasking researchers on the same subject to dig deeper on the transactions. This could be interpreted as a partial confession that there is no tangible evidence or facts with which Tagwirei can be successfully prosecuted in any court of law. To date, Kuvimba Mining House has issued a statement refuting any equity shareholding by Tagwirei.

The report, on the other hand, is mute on the modus operandi used to collect evidence against Tagwirei or, better still, confessions or testimonials by his workers with regards to underhand business dealings. It comes out as a collection or listing of Tagwirei’s network than it can ever be an expose` as its originators would want it to be.

Targeting Zimbabwe’s Land Reform Programme

The report’s accusations against Tagwirei through Sakunda Holdings for allegedly embezzling at least US$1 billion are just part of the publication’s efforts to oppose the former’s role in funding the Command Agriculture Programme or reversing the gains of the Land Reform Programme (LRP). Sakunda has been the main financier of Command Agriculture Programme for the past five years, hence it was placed under sanctions. However, Command Agriculture has been restructured and is now called Smart Agriculture and now being co-financed through the major players in the banking sector such as CBZ and AFC Banks. The publication and its backers, therefore, will not succeed in crippling Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector.

No illegality

The Sentry issued a diagram alluding to the alleged complex web of Tagwirei’s business empire. Once again, there is no illegality exposed. In any case, there is nothing sinister in having Tagwirei and Sakunda business in Zimbabwe forging intra-linkages and cross boundary partnerships with South African, Mauritius and Cayman Islands companies. For strategic reasons and to enjoy economies of scale, it is normal for companies to integrate vertically in the same line of business or horizontally across sectors.

Sakunda’s alleged linkage with Cayman Island-based fund managers and investors raises dust with The Sentry because it was viewed as one of the avenues where companies structured financial deals to raise capital for operations in Zimbabwe. Contrary to the allegations by The Sentry, Sakunda is not syphoning money out of Zimbabwe through back door tax havens of Cayman Islands. Instead, it is doing the opposite by bringing in the much needed foreign currency by partnering Almas to bring fuel into the country. As such, the world should know that the description of Sakunda’s business by The Sentry as a web is nothing but a smokescreen to lobby for all the cited 40 companies alleged to be owned by Tagwirei to be placed under sanctions since he is also under OFAC embargoes.

Desperation to get hands on Zimbabwe’s minerals

Through its report, The Sentry comes out as opposed to the revival of Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) subsidiaries namely Jena and Elvington gold mines. It is important to note that ZMDC subsidiaries have been on the market for five years, some of them under care and maintenance as well as curatorship until Sakunda injected funding for their revival. In line with the privatization thrust by Government, these companies were up for grabs by anyone and, fortunately, Sakunda won the tender. Worth noting also, is the fact that ZMDC and some of these subsidiaries are under ZIDERA sanctions list.

The Sentry’s report is lobbying for broader sanctions to be imposed on the country’s mining sector. Previously, it was only Chiadzwa Diamond fields which were declared ‘blood diamonds’ coupled by a directive that legitimate trading could only be carried out through the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS). It raises question on why investment in country X, for it to be considered transparent, should include the European Union (EU) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD) countries; and not in line with Government’s Look East policy? Looked at from another angle, the report exposes the West’s desperation to frustrate Zimbabwe’s Look East policy, which is going on so well.

In essence, The Sentry’s report tries to create several legends as demonstrated by the use of catch phrase used in the recommendations section of the report “authorities should investigate.” This implies that The Sentry has no facts, whatever they are saying is based on speculation. There is no hard evidence to substantiate their allegations. It is clear that there are concerted efforts by the US to pin down the Second Republic’s efforts to stabilize the country’s economy which is evidenced by the reduction in inflation figures, stabilization of the official exchange rate as well as the projected economic double growth to 6 percent in 2021.

Tagwirei and other patriotic and progressive Zimbabweans should not be daunted by the US’ stunt. The smear campaign against Tagwirei is just a ploy to whip up the people’s emotions against Government by presenting him as the face and accessory of alleged looting of Zimbabwe’s natural resources.