In an investigative report covering topics like the illicit gold and cigarette trade in southern Africa, some of South Africa’s top banks have been fingered in allegations of their involvement in international money laundering.
The Al Jazeera investigative series “Gold Mafia” infiltrates some of southern Africa’s biggest smuggling gangs laundering gold and millions of dollars. It is a production of the media company’s investigative reporting corps, I-Unit.
In episode two, Smoke and Mirrors, Absa, Sasfin and Standard Bank are all mentioned as banks used by international smugglers to launder their money. Bank records of some of the key players in the illicit tobacco and gold industry show bribery payments made to employees of these banks to ensure international money transfers raised no red flags.
At Sasfin, an alleged money launderer managed to infiltrate its foreign exchange division to such an extent the alleged mastermind managed to install a favourable candidate into the senior forex team at the bank, despite, the report claims, the candidate having no experience handling foreign currency.
The investigative series appears to show how the deep rot of corruption managed to extend into South Africa’s supposedly venerable banking fraternity, all in a bid to make it appear to the Reserve Bank international money transfers were above board, thereby avoiding detection.
One of the scariest claims made by Al Jazeera’s report, is that an IT employee at Sasfin, upon instruction from the alleged money laundering mastermind, managed to successfully remove a dodgy transaction from the bank’s servers, effectively erasing any evidence of wrongdoing. This was done to hide an allegedly fraudulent transaction from the Reserve Bank.
Sasfin told Al Jazeera it was taking “vigorous action against suspended and former employees of its foreign exchange unit” and said Sasfin no longer had a relationship with any of the businesses named in the media group’s investigation.
Sasfin further responded to IOL saying it had “identified suspicious transactions regarding Gold Leaf Tobacco and proactively closed the accounts and shared the relevant information with the authorities”.
“Ongoing surveillance subsequently resulted in the closure of other implicated accounts,” Sasfin told IOL.
“Decisive action has been taken against those implicated, including the laying of criminal charges. We continue to work with the relevant authorities involved in ensuring that all these participants face justice.
“We recognise our responsibilities which we are firmly committed to fulfilling to increase our vigilance in combating these types of sophisticated financial crimes,” it said.
Absa told Al Jazeera it had passed the findings on to its Forensic Investigative Unit.
Standard Bank said it had a zero-tolerance stance relating to fraud and criminality, and would report and assist in any legal investigation.
IOL