How the Gold Mafia and smugglers pay off South African bank officials to launder dirty cash

Officials at Standard Bank, ABSA Bank, and Sasfin Bank have been on the payroll of smugglers

According to an investigation by Al Jazeera, officials at three major banks in South Africa are helping a gold smuggling gang launder millions of dollars in exchange for regular bribes.

The officials at Standard Bank, ABSA Bank, and Sasfin Bank have been on the payroll of Mohamed Khan, a money launderer working for cigarette magnate and smuggler Simon Rudland.

Using fake invoices and identities, Khan transfers millions of unaccounted dollars in each transaction to a set of companies with bank accounts in different parts of the world, including Aulion in Dubai, Vantage Leaf in Mauritius, Velmont Valley in Switzerland, and Liberty Gold in the United States, which are run by Rudland’s partners.

PKSA and Salt Asset Management, which send the money, claim to be doing so in lieu of imports of tobacco, clothes, and gold – imports that never actually enter South Africa.

To facilitate this, Khan bribes influential officers at several South African banks so no red flags are raised during the transactions.

al jazeera