内容摘要：“We are actually selling directly on Russian marketplaces ourselves,” a sales manager at BMG International, a company registered in Dubai, told Al Jazeera.

“We are actually selling directly on Russian marketplaces ourselves,” a sales manager at BMG International, a company registered in Dubai, told Al Jazeera.

It’s not the first time Rushwaya has been involved in a gold scam. In 2020, she was briefly arrested while trying to carry 6kg of gold from Zimbabwe to Dubai. Then, the following year, a former driver of Rushwaya tried to take gold worthThe money laundering plan Rushwaya outlined to our reporters involved using dirty cash to buy Zimbabwean gold — which our reporters could then sell in the international market in exchange for legitimate money.

The dirty money would be flown into Zimbabwe on Angel’s plane, which would circumvent customs checks because of his diplomatic status. “I’m always available, I’m here at your disposal,” she told Angel, on a phone call where the plan was discussed.Rushwaya did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for a formal comment about the investigation.Ewan Macmillan aka Mr Gold

Pattni’s arch-rival in Zimbabwe’s gold-smuggling industry, Macmillan is loud and loquacious. He was first jailed for gold smuggling in the early 1990s, when he was just 21 years old. By his own account, he has been to prison on several occasions since then.Now, he partners with the same Zimbabwean state machinery that once used to arrest him. Also known as Mr Gold, Macmillan is among a set of smugglers — including Pattni — who each work with Zimbabwe’s state-run refinery, Fidelity. He is also an acquaintance of Simon Rudland, a Zimbabwean millionaire who has been accused by South African authorities of money laundering.

These smugglers have deals with Fidelity to deliver a quota of gold bought from small-scale miners to the refinery. They then export it to Dubai and provide hard currency for the Zimbabwean government. But like Pattni and Angel, this mechanism allows smugglers like Macmillan to also launder millions of dollars.

“There is an opportunity, a hell of a big opportunity to wash money here,” he told our reporters. “I can give my partner gold in Dubai and he can just pay you anywhere in the world.”Trump welcomes the idea of disheartened Americans building new lives in new places because he is president. It is, I suspect, a point of pride since it suggests his vindictive agenda is working.

For Trump, the exodus of “liberal elites” or “out-of-touch” entertainers is proof that the old establishment, never subscribers to his jejune notion of America’s “greatness”, is being replaced by “authentic” patriots.This response is, of course, symptomatic of Trump’s broader political strategy – drawing a Berlin-Wall-like line between “real” Americans – his supporters – and everyone else.

By celebrating the phenomenon of Americans parting in protest, he promotes the insidious attitude that protest is not an essential ingredient of a mature, confident nation, but a form of disloyalty.Trump is not interested in unity or persuasion. As such, he frames his presidency as a litmus test of fidelity. If you don’t worship him, you’re encouraged to join the despondent diaspora – and, in his jaundiced view, good riddance.