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“Cosa Nostra Diamonds” - Sicilian mafia – Louis Liebenberg - Part 5
https://mafiainafrica.investigativecenters.org/2015/04/16/cosa-nostra-diamonds.html
Apr 16, 2015
Below are excerpts
Marange Diamonds and the Zimbabwe Diamond Opportunity
But the bloodbath of Operation Hakudzokwi was not enough to shame the Mugabe government. With the blood barely dry, the Marange fields became an exploration ground for a new Sino-Zimbabwean partnership. And ZANU called in its three secret partners.
The first, Anjin, is a joint venture between China’s Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Company (AFECC) and a shell company called Matt Bronze Pvt. According to Deputy Mines Minister Gift Chimanikire, the Zimbabwean Defense Industry (ZDI) was a 40% shareholder.
The second partner, Mbada, is a partnership between Grandwell Holdings and the state-owned Zimbabwean Minerals Development Corporation (ZMDC). Grandwell Holdings is registered in the Mauritius, and hides the same beneficiaries of Anjin: Zhang Shibin and Cheng Qins.
The third company, China International Fund (CIF), is a Hong Kong-based firm closely associated with China Sonangol, whose shareholders include Angola’s state-owned oil company Sonangol. An article published by 100 Reporters, a US-based investigative platform, detailed the use of a plane owned by Angola’s Sonangol, utilized for the smuggling of great quantities of diamonds.
In 2013, the three companies were found to be sponsoring Mugabe’s 2013 electoral campaign. The support, as suggested by the Chinese Communist Party itself, included the “absolute neutralization of the enemy”, carried out – according to Zimbabwean Intelligence (CIO) documents obtained by ANCIR - using “thousands of young men” armed with “assault rifles”.
Since 2009, the three companies have extracted from the Marange fields an incredible number of diamonds. These gems were either sold to India via Dubai, or to local acquirers such as Billy Tanhira, a Ferrante man.
The contract Liebenberg obtained for the Ferrantes allows them to purchase up to 30.000 carats per month in Marange diamonds, meaning they are purchased from Anijn, Mbada or CIF.
“I sent my cousin up to Ghana to help the Ferrante with the equipment in the new ventures with Lorenzo Palazzo,” said Liebenberg. “When Palazzo came down to Zimbabwe, he and Ferrantes also wanted to start buying diamonds directly from the Chinese of ANJIN, the largest mining company of the world with rights in Marange”.
The Ferrante picked the right time to buy Marange diamonds. A Zimbabwean Parliamentary source told journalists that at its peak in 2012, “Zimbabwe produced $3,5 billion in rough diamonds”. One can only guess at exactly how many millions of carats have been moved by the family since 2011, and at the enormity of the profits gained.
“At this point it seemed the Italians were not interested in working the concession,” Liebenberg 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 Concession10 was not their priority.
Liebenberg should have smelled something fishy, but remained trusting.
At around this time the Italian investment attracted the attentions of high-ranking South African government officials, who asked him to be included in the deal.