“Married to the Mob: The diamond boer and the honeytrap” – Louis Lieberman - Part 5

https://mg.co.za/article/2015-04-16-married-to-the-mob-the-diamond-boer-and-the-honeytrap/
16 Apr 2015


Back in South Africa, Messicati Vitale was introduced to Liebenberg by Pina, who referred to him as “our cousin, Tony”.

“He stayed with Pina and me for a whole month,” Liebenberg said. “He wasn’t fluent in English but could understand. He brought lots of expensive gifts from Italy to the family. I only got to know what Pina told me about him: that he was her cousin and had lots of money. I only discovered later, in the press, that he had been jailed for Mafia.”

It was during this month that Messicati Vitale returned to Zimbabwe, this time to Marange. He came back with one million carats of illegal diamonds, bought with cash.

Marange’s diamond prices vary significantly according to the gems’ quality, colour and purity. The minimum set price is $70 a carat, though it is possible to access the highest quality stones, costing up to $450 a carat, “if buyers specifically request it and get it direct from mines”, said a source familiar with the trade.
 
When Messicati Vitale left Zimbabwe in January 2011, he left with between $70-million to $450-million worth of illegal diamonds.

Where these diamonds are now is speculation, but many of them likely to have made it on to the fingers and around the necks of rich Europeans, who are unaware that their expensive purchase is tainted with blood and Mafia money.

Only a few years after joining Liebenberg, the Ferrante family was well-connected in the DRC, South Africa, Angola and Zimbabwe. There was a steady flow of cash coming in from Europe. But the money, Liebenberg discovered, was not flowing into the African Dune company’s bank accounts as expected. Instead, the cash was funnelled into a new company, Mpreaso Mining, set up by the Ferrantes without Liebenberg’s knowledge.

That meant that the Zimbabwe Diamond Opportunity was now pretty much a dirty venture for the Cosa Nostra, whose own money originates from violence, drugs, extortion and other illegal activities.

On March 2 2011 a diver drowned during the preliminary exploration dives in the shallow waters of South Africa’s concession 10 site. Alberto Ferrante, one of Salvatore Ferrante jnr’s brothers, was in charge of the dive.

The investigation that followed stopped all further explorations on the concession site, and De Beers, which owned the land on the coastline where the ports and warehouses were based, locked African Dune out, effectively preventing the work from continuing.

Liebenberg fired Alberto, but this was, in his own words, “the biggest mistake of my life. I never thought if you fire one the whole family will turn against you.” From then on the Ferrante family’s main focus was to the get rid of Liebenberg.

“At this point, it seemed the Italians were not interested in working the concession,” he said. “They were, rather, only interested in buying and selling diamonds.” It was clear Liebenberg had been used as a gate to Zimbabwe, mainly, and that concession 10 was not their priority.

With enough time and money, the West Coast project could have been lucrative. But the Mafia is averse to risk, and most likely pushed the Ferrantes for quicker investments. Diamonds are commodities, bought and sold quickly as way to clean money. And, in this regard, Zimbabwe was far more important.