Kenyan businessman and politician Kamlesh Pattni is among 28 individuals and businesses based in Zimbabwe sanctioned by U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the UK’s International Corruption Unit (ICU) for involvement in global gold smuggling and money laundering.
- •According to the sanctions, the global network led by Pattni has facilitated illicit activities by bribing officials, deploying trusted supporters to mask ownership, and weaving a global web of businesses to hide the illicit activities.
- •Pattni, 59, first came to global attention as a result of the infamous Goldenberg scandal in Kenya in the 1990s, when he was accused of manipulating Kenyan export incentives and corrupting senior Kenyan government officials.
- •Although Pattni denied any wrongdoing and appeared before a commission of inquiry in the 2000s, he eventually shifted his attention to Zimbabwe.
“Across the globe, when corrupt actors like Pattni choose to exploit openings in governance structures to benefit themselves and their cronies, communities suffer and public trust is undermined,” Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith said.
While OFAC designated 27 individuals, the ICU sanctioned Pattni and two others, a Belgian gold trader called Alain Goetz, and Anto Joseph, who serves as CEO and manager of several gold trading companies. it also sanctioned Pattnis’s wife and brother-in-law “who have a long history of involvement in his network of companies.”
In Zimbabwe, Pattni befriended then-President Robert Mugabe and reestablished a scheme similar to the one he ran in Kenya. Pattni, as featured in public reporting and elsewhere, has enlisted a range of couriers and supporters to engage in export incentive fraud and bribery.
The scheme has many layers, including one where the Kenyan businessman and his network return with the proceeds of the exports and overstate the amount of cash, receiving compensation on the over reported cash.
After his legal troubles in Kenya, Pattni dabbled in religion and politics, founding both a church and a political party. In 2013, he ran for the Westlands constituency but lost.