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In a striking revelation, over 890,000 documents, now infamous as the "Swazi Secrets," obtained by Distributed Denial of Secrets and shared with Satori News Agency, have exposed a complicated network revolving around money laundering activities through Eswatini. This small Southern African kingdom, once known solely for its cultural heritage and being one of the world's last absolute monarchies, is now spotlighted as a conduit in illicit gold trade and dirty money flows primarily connected to the Southern African region.
The documents pinpoint transactions involving Keenin Schofield, related to Eswatini’s royal family, and Alistair Mathias, a Dubai-based businessman with alleged close ties to King Mswati III. Dating back to late 2018, these transactions showed rapid financial exchanges from a Johannesburg-based company named AMFS to Schofield’s companies and then to Dubai - all ostensibly under the façade of lawful business dealings involving gold trading.
The connection unravelled began with the Eswatini Financial Intelligence Unit (EFIU), tasked with monitoring suspicious financial activities within the kingdom. The EFIU's interest peaked when vast sums began transferring between Schofield's and Mathias’s entities, raising suspicions of their use of the kingdom as a laundering route for gold smuggled out of Zimbabwe, with potential complicity of the Mnangagwa regime.
Further exploring the leaked data, it became evident that the EFIU harbored concerns about the possible concealment of the original illicit sources of these funds. The documents detailed Schofield's ventures which ostensibly involved legitimate businesses like Schofield & Co. Custom Jewelers. However, beneath this veneer lay transactions laced with irregularities pointing towards typical money laundering tactics such as “smurfing” – splitting large transactions into smaller, less suspicious amounts.
The intrigue deepens with the involvement of AMFS, a company that emerged under suspicious conditions with new directors linked to notorious financial scandals across Southern Africa. The funds originating from AMFS flowed to Schofield’s accounts before being swiftly transferred out, predominantly to Mathias’s holdings in Dubai.
Despite the creation of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Eswatini aimed at bolstering economic growth via major investments like a proposed gold refinery by Schofield and Mathias, the project never materialized. Instead, their business dealings primarily resulted in a complex web of transactions leading investigators to explore deeper into potential criminal activities, including corruption and high-level money laundering.
Currently, despite ongoing investigations and EFIU's detailed scrutiny, major players in the scheme like Mathias and Schofield have not faced legal repercussions. The leak exposes both the apparent ease of executing cross-border financial crimes and the challenges faced by investigative bodies in clamping down on such activities, highlighting significant loopholes in international financial laws and enforcement.