NEW: Switzerland-based commodities giant Trafigura paid influential insider Kudakwashe Tagwirei $100 million in fees for his help securing a sweetheart deal for access to Zimbabwe’s fuel market.
occrp.org/en/investigati…
occrp.org/en/investigati…
As Zimbabwe’s economy has floundered, Tagwirei — a tycoon known as “Queen Bee” due to his vast economic influence — has flourished, benefitting from shadowy contracts worth billions and preferential access to minerals and scarce foreign currency.
OCCRP learned he also received $100 million in fees from Trafigura for helping them dominate Zimbabwe’s fuel market. “Only one set of interests controls the fuel: Trafigura and Tagwirei,” Zimbabwe's former finance minister told OCCRP.
Trafigura and Tagwirei advanced at least $1 billion in prepayments to Zimbabwe’s government, at high interest rates, in exchange for significant control over the Zimbabwean market and priority use of fuel pipelines.
The joint venture would last until December 2019, when Trafigura bought out the soon-to-be-sanctioned Tagwirei.
But the partnership may have been too lucrative to discontinue.
But the partnership may have been too lucrative to discontinue.
Trafigura sought to continue its relationship with Tagwirei via Sotic International Ltd., a new company that he had set up in Mauritius, and associated shell companies fronted by South Africa-based directors.
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