United States sanctions Zimbabwe gold smugglers

The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday sanctioned 28 individuals and businesses involved in a gold smuggling network in Zimbabwe. Businessman Kamlesh Pattni’s gold-smuggling and money-laundering network was robbing the country’s people of their natural resources, the department claimed. The network also bribed government officials and ran an intricate web of businesses meant to hide its illicit activities, according to the statement. Pattni’s alleged criminal network has enriched government officials and criminal actors at the expense of Zimbabwe’s people, the department said.

The department announced the sanctions on Anti-Corruption Day, which the United States and some 139 other entities have observed since 2003. The United Nations that year designated Dec. 9 as a day for confronting corruption worldwide.

Are other countries taking anti-corruption actions? The United Kingdom on Monday said that it was also sanctioning Kamlesh Pattni and his network, who it identified as a British-Kenyan businessman. The actions were part of a larger effort to crack down on the illicit gold trade worldwide, the British government said.

Dig deeper: Listen to Onize Oduah’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast from about this time last year discussing a cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe.