“It beggars belief that Credit Suisse continued to provide Rautenbach with banking facilities given the furor created by CAMEC gifting $100 million to Mugabe,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg, executive director of U.K.-based corporate watchdog RAID.
“Credit Suisse’s process to verify its clients was either woefully inadequate or completely ignored,” she said.
By the end of May 2008, the two Rautenbach accounts were worth more than $20 million, and potentially as much as $38 million, though OCCRP cannot assess whether these funds were tied directly to the platinum deal. The accounts were finally closed in April 2009, after U.K. authorities froze Rautenbach’s holdings in CAMEC.
By then, Mugabe was well into his fifth term, and Rautenbach had already profited from the platinum sale.
Backing CAMEC and Rautenbach
Even before CAMEC took control of the Zimbabwe platinum mine, the company was growing rapidly during the height of the early 2000s commodity boom. The company’s share price soared and by 2007 it had attracted a range of large institutional investors eager to capitalize on rising metals prices.
A business intelligence consultant with knowledge of Rautenbach’s dealings, who requested anonymity for professional reasons, said companies like CAMEC relied on backing from institutional banks and investors to secure mining deals.
“[The banks and companies] bring not only capital, but high level connections and influence. Investors in CAMEC were desperate to defend CAMEC and Rautenbach.”
By late 2008, one of Credit Suisse’s leading Africa mining analysts had even joined CAMEC as its head of investor relations.
Rautenbach also held a major stake in CAMEC and was responsible for most of its day-to-day operations in DRC, where he had long been a key player in the troubled mining sector –– often acting on behalf of Mugabe’s regime.
“[Banks and companies] liked that Rautenbach got things done – he was the hands-on organizer,” said the business intelligence consultant.
To finance the platinum rights acquisition, CAMEC had tapped both old and new investors. Credit Suisse bought in, but the main investor was a New York-based hedge fund then called Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, which would later become enmeshed in a lawsuit that shed light on the Zimbabwe deal.
In September 2016, Och-Ziff admitted to bribing officials in countries across Africa, from DRC to Libya, and agreed to pay a $412 million fine to the U.S. Department of Justice to settle pending criminal charges.
Documents from that case describe a March 2008 visit to DRC and Zimbabwe by an Och-Ziff executive. He met with Rautenbach, described in documents as a “Zimbabwe shareholder” of a “London stock exchange-listed mining company with operations in the DRC.” The documents corroborate Rautenbach’s role in the platinum rights deal and the $100 million that reportedly made its way to Mugabe.
According to media reports, the Och-Ziff executive’s trip to Zimbabwe and DRC was organized by Credit Suisse.
Credit Suisse did not respond to questions about specific accounts or customers. The bank said it “operates its business in compliance with all applicable global and local laws and regulations” and that it had strengthened its “risk management framework and control systems.”
Rautenbach did not respond to questions.
Sanctions Ignored
In November 2008, once the scale of Zimbabwe’s election violence had become clear, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned several Mugabe “cronies,” including Rautenbach and one of his companies, accusing him of supporting mining deals that benefitted corrupt officials.
The EU followed suit in January 2009, sanctioning Rautenbach and hundreds of Zimbabwean officials and enablers. The EU lifted its sanctions in 2012, while U.S. sanctions remained in place until 2014.
Steeples with blue flags of the European Union against the background of the European Commission building Berlaymont in Brussels, Belgium. EU flag, symbol
Rautenbach had reportedly lobbied both the U.S. and EU to get off the blacklists.
In September 2009, Kazakh mining company Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) agreed to buy CAMEC for an estimated $955 million, delivering a huge payday to its shareholders, including Rautenbach and Credit Suisse.
Rautenbach never publicly revealed how much he profited from the sale to ENRC, but OCCRP analysis of the share price shows that he would have made at least $99 million, on top of the $5 million he earned when the platinum rights were sold.
CAMEC’s dealings in Zimbabwe were so dubious that ENRC was required to file a Suspicious Activity Report to U.K. authorities when it bought the company, according to court documents OCCRP obtained.
The report said CAMEC “might have been involved in breaches of Zimbabwe sanctions” and “might have made unlawful payments in order to secure or retain its mining licenses.”
Because Rautenbach was under EU sanctions at the time, ENRC had to get special permission from U.K. authorities to buy out his CAMEC shares. Though the U.K. Treasury did not confirm the waiver was granted, ENRC acquired 100 percent of CAMEC.
By the end of 2013 ENRC had delisted and left London after the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office opened an investigation into its business in Africa.
The platinum site in Zimbabwe was left undeveloped for over a decade, and no platinum appears to have ever been mined.
Research on this story was provided by OCCRP ID. Data expertise was provided by OCCRP’s Data Team. Fact-checking was provided by the OCCRP Fact-Checking Desk.
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