Gold Mafia 4: What Alistair Mathias said about his dealings in Ghana
In the Al Jazeera undercover investigation titled Gold Mafia, one of the main subjects, described by the undercover reporters as a Financial Architect, Alistair Mathias, identified in some news reports in Ghana as a Canadian businessman made emphatic statements about his dealings in Ghana.
Mathias who says he used to be the biggest in Ghana at one point, also told the reporters he used to do about $40 million to $60 million worth of gold a month from Ghana.
“Ghana’s president is a good friend of mine. In fact, he was my lawyer,” Mathias was recorded saying.
President Akufo-Addo has however told Al Jazeera that he had no recollection of acting as a lawyer for Mathias or his company.
In the four-episodes video that has shocked the world, Mathias and other main subjects involved in what they clearly explained as captured on hidden cameras to be money laundering said there is no president in Africa that they can’t get access to.
“There is no president that either of us (referring to himself and Ewan Macmillan), one of the main subjects of the investigation), can’t get to on this continent,” he said.
“When you work, you must always have the king with you,” Kamlesh Pattni, one of the main subjects was recorded saying. He also assured undercover reporters that he has a direct line to the President of Zimbabwe.
“Next door King of Swaziland is my friend. Zambia’s president is a close friend of mine. DR Congo the president has invited me there several times to come and build a refinery,” he confidently told the undercover reporters posing as Chinese criminals seeking to clean dirty money.
“So this can get people like us to get money cleaned?” One of the reporters asked and Mathias nodded his head in affirmation.
“There is no president that either of us can’t get to on this continent,” he said.
In the investigation that exposed how the group uses gold to launder money across Africa, Mathias was recorded telling the reporters that dirty money can be cleaned with buying and selling gold.
“Ghana’s president is a good friend of mine. In fact, he was my lawyer. Cyril Ramaphosa here, I know him. I know his kids,” Mathias boasted.
“Zimbabwe is easy,” Macmillan chipped in.
“In Zim E.D. is my partner (E.D. are the initials of President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe), but I can’t say that in public because he is sanctioned,” added Mathias.
Macmillan interjected “I know E.D. as well. But they don’t know we know each other. I sat with him three months ago. Sitting with him chatting with him. The good news is whatever I told him he did. Right? When I was getting hurt, I said you’ve got to stop it, here, here, here. And he did, he did it. He did it. Within two weeks he fixed everything.”
Among other things Macmillan advised the undercover reporters posing as Chinese criminals seeking to launder dirty money not to invest with a black person.
“The president is my f***king partner. I did 60 days in prison. And my partner is the new president,” he snarled.
He said while in prison two guys he described as two big black guys were sent to warn him never to say who his partner is.
In advising the reporters on how to wash their money, Mathias said: “Do what the politicians do. For instance, I buy a lot of stuff in my name on behalf of politicians. So, if Mr Stanley (referring to one of the undercover reporters) trusts you (another reporter), he can keep things in your name. You have to have someone that you trust as a proxy. Politicians they don’t have their names owning anything. They always have proxies that represent them. Pretty much everyone, even in Russia. Even in Russia they have someone that they trust, a nephew or a cousin that holds all their assets. Africa same thing. Someone they trust that runs all businesses and they continue to being politicians,” Mathias was recorded saying.
He continued to say he does government contracts in Africa and mentioned Ghana specifically.
“In Africa I do government contracts. In Ghana I take tenders, road construction, procurement, supplying different things, oil, this that. There, all the politicians get taken care of indirectly. Because it allows me to do all my other stuff freely,” he stated in the video.
“So the government contracts is the way you reward the politicians?” Stanley asks.
Mathias responds: “See what happens, government will give me a contract. There is a lot of commission involved. They want a commission. He wants a commission. See if you are a politician and you do a contract, you are not going to tell the whole world you are getting 10 per cent. No one can know but you trust me. So you say this is the deal. Keep it with you.
“I bond the commission for them. Then it’s a matter of they tell me pay that, pay that, move it here, move it there.
“So for example Ghana government, Mathias Holdings, I get the contract. I subcontract it to you $100 million contract. I give it to you, you say it’s $80 million. I have an agreement with them and they’ll get 15%. I’ll probably get $5 million. I keep it all in Dubai. Wherever they want it, just tell me and I will send it. That’s how I do it,” he explained to the reporters he took for Chinese criminals.
Touting his credentials, Mathias told the undercover reporters: “The most important thing in Africa is that the people trust me. All the politicians trust that whatever money of theirs that I have is safe. That’s the biggest capital that I have. They trust me because they know that I will pay their commission,” he added.
Al Jazeera found a link between Mathias and a Ghana registered gold exporting company, Guldrest Resources. Local news reports have reported court cases involving disputes over $4 million in Ghana and another $9.2 million both in Ghana and Dubai between Mathias and his Ghanaian counterparts. The reports say the courts cleared Mathias of all the allegations and dismissed the cases.
In response to Al Jazeera requests, Mathias denied that he designed mechanisms to launder money and said that he had never laundered money or gold or offered to do such things.
By Emmanuel K Dogbevi