{"id":76399,"date":"2023-04-08T11:27:55","date_gmt":"2023-04-08T09:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/gold-mafia-simon-rudland-has-issued-a-response"},"modified":"2023-04-08T13:37:55","modified_gmt":"2023-04-08T11:37:55","slug":"gold-mafia-simon-rudland-has-issued-a-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/gold-mafia-simon-rudland-has-issued-a-response","title":{"rendered":"Gold Mafia: Simon Rudland Has Issued A Response"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span><b>Simon Rudland,<\/b> the co-owner of Gold Leaf Tobacco Zimbabwe, has dismissed the Al Jazeera documentary called \u201c<b>Gold Mafia<\/b>\u201d as sensationalized and extreme. He argues that the documentary only presents selective snippets of wild and broad claims without proper context or evidence to support them. In a short video posted on social media platforms this Friday, Rudland said:<\/p>\n<p>This is done to traumatise and sensationalise for maximum exposure. Any investigation into this documentary is welcomed and will reveal the extent of the fabrication of the information portrayed by Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n<p>Rudland was responding to reports by Al Jazeera\u2019s Investigative Unit (I-Unit) Rudland is the one assisting broke the <b>Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)<\/b> with <b>money to buy gold from miners.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>In the first episode of \u201cGold Mafia,\u201d Al Jazeera claims that Simon Rudland is connected to Zimbabwe\u2019s ruling party, ZANU PF and has a unique agreement with the government that allows him to transport gold to Dubai and bring back cash to Zimbabwe. According to <b>Simon Nango<\/b>, a South African Airways customer service agent, Rudland\u2019s bags are not searched and he uses Fly Emirates.<\/p>\n<p>The documentary claims that due to sanctions on Zimbabwe, importing cash is difficult, and gold is an effective way to bypass those restrictions. Simon Rudland is accused of helping the government evade these sanctions by lending them money from his company, <b>Gold Leaf Tobacco Zimbabwe<\/b>, to buy gold from miners. Rudland then provides an advance payment to Fidelity Printers and Refiners, a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which is the sole buyer, refiner, and exporter of the precious metal. Fidelity buys the gold and gives it to Rudland to export.<\/p>\n<p>According to former Finance and Economic Development Minister, <b>Tendai Biti<\/b>, Zimbabwe is losing around US$1 billion annually due to smuggling, and Simon Rudland is at the heart of this operation.<\/p>\n<p>RBZ has frozen Rudland\u2019s bank accounts together with those of his co-accused \u2013 Uebert Angel, Ewan McMillan, Cleopas Chidodo, David Chirozvi, Mehlululi Dube, and Fredrick Kunaka<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\">Zimbabwe<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. Simon Rudland, the co-owner of Gold Leaf Tobacco Zimbabwe, has dismissed the Al Jazeera documentary called \u201cGold Mafia\u201d as sensationalized and extreme. He argues that the documentary only presents selective snippets of wild and broad claims without proper context or evidence to support them. In a short video posted on social media [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":76398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[1493,2189,14423,11601,19],"class_list":{"0":"post-76399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-economy","9":"tag-africa-press","10":"tag-africa-press-zimbabwe-2","11":"tag-gold-mafia-al-jazeera-documentary","12":"tag-simon-rudland","13":"tag-zimbabwe"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gold Mafia: Simon Rudland Has Issued A Response - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Simon Rudland, the co-owner of Gold Leaf Tobacco Zimbabwe, has dismissed the Al Jazeera documentary called \u201cGo ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/gold-mafia-simon-rudland-has-issued-a-response\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gold Mafia: Simon Rudland Has Issued A Response\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Simon Rudland, the co-owner of Gold Leaf Tobacco Zimbabwe, has dismissed the Al Jazeera documentary called \u201cGo ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/gold-mafia-simon-rudland-has-issued-a-response\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-04-08T09:27:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-08T11:37:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1680937087.79.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/gold-mafia-simon-rudland-has-issued-a-response\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/gold-mafia-simon-rudland-has-issued-a-response\",\"name\":\"Gold Mafia: Simon Rudland Has Issued A Response - 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