Foreign investors hold $9.05 trillion of debt, of which:

Al Jazeera reporters, posing as Chinese nationals who were looking to launder large sums of money, were offered several ways to remove all stains of corruption from their dirty cash.Among those mechanisms was the use of Angel’s diplomatic clout. Officially, the pastor-diplomat is tasked with finding investors to come to Zimbabwe. However, Angel made it clear that he was willing to help smuggle gold and launder money.

Zimbabwe needs dollars because the country’s own currency has lost its value in international trade due to hyperinflation. A commodity like gold is a good way to earn dollars, but international sanctions imposed on the country make it difficult for the government to export gold because of the additional scrutiny on officials in power.“So you have to figure out other ways to do that,” Karen Greenaway, a former FBI investigator who tracks international money laundering schemes, told Al Jazeera. One way around: individual gold miners, who don’t face those restrictions.This scenario makes Zimbabwe fertile ground for money launderers who can help the country earn dollars in exchange for gold.

The president’s nieceCentral to Angel’s gold-for-dirty money operations is Henrietta Rushwaya, president of the Zimbabwe Miners Association. Rushwaya, who is also President Mnangagwa’s niece, told Angel and the reporters on a phone call that smuggling 100kg of gold each week would be no problem.

The scheme would need an initial investment of $10mn of dirty cash into the government’s gold refinery, Fidelity. Of that, $5mn would be held in reserve by Fidelity for the duration of the scam, with the rest being used every week to buy gold.

Once the gold is bought, another $5mn would be brought in to buy more gold until all the money had been laundered into the precious metal — which would then be sold internationally for legitimate, clean cash.“It’s a complicated matter. [Each company] has to look at harms versus benefits and exit responsibly,” she said.

For many Russians, though, the corporate exodus is not a question of ethics or human rights, but quality of life.Vladislav is an entrepreneur in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, about four hours' drive from Ukraine's Mariupol, much of which has been destroyed by Russian forces.

Despite Rostov-on-Don’s proximity to the front lines, the situation in the city is relatively calm.When carmakers began announcing their exit from Russia, Vladislav, who has more than 10 years of experience selling used cars, realised that there would be a spike in demand and used his industry contacts to find “trusted partners in Western countries and establish supply chains”.