Secretary of State Marco Rubio later

Angel and his business partner Rikki Doolan also claimed that their laundering operations had the approval of Mnangagwa, who has been in power since November 2017, when Zimbabwe’s controversial former leader Robert Mugabe was ousted in a military coup.“You want gold, gold we can do it right now, we can make the call right now, and it’s done,” Angel told Al Jazeera’s reporters. “It will land in Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe can’t touch it too until I get to my house. So, there can be a diplomatic plan.”

“So, it is a very, very easy thing,” he said.Angel made the offer during an operation that was part of ‘Gold Mafia’, an investigation into several gold-smuggling gangs in Southern Africa, with Zimbabwe and South Africa as key hubs.The investigation reveals how these gangs have turned Western sanctions meant to target Zimbabwe’s government into an opportunity to smuggle large quantities of gold and launder hundreds of millions of dollars through a complex web of companies and bribes.

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.Swedish appliance manufacturer Electrolux, which in September 2022 announced it would exit Russia completely, saw shipments of its products decline sharply throughout 2022, from about 1,600 tonnes in January to just 184 tonnes in September.

But by May 2023, shipments topped pre-war levels at some 2,000 tonnes, before again plunging sharply.Electrolux expressed surprise at customs records appearing to show its products continuing to flow into Russia, mainly from Chinese suppliers.

A company spokesperson said the data suggested that Electrolux-branded products were being made and exported by unaffiliated firms without permission.“According to our data, we had no product exports to Russia during 2023, and we have procedures in place to confirm those numbers,” the spokesperson told Al Jazeera.