Acacia Mining (LON:ACA), Tanzania’s No.1 gold producer, confirmed Wednesday local media reports saying that one of its staff members and a former employee were detained by the country’s anticorruption authority.
The company, majority owned by Barrick Gold (TSX, NYSE:ABX), updated the market later in the day, announcing that its three local subsidiaries, an employee and a former staffer had been charged for money laundering and tax evasion.
All the accused had pleaded not guilty to all 39 charges, which include tax evasion, conspiracy, a charge under organized crime legislation, forgery, money laundering and corruption, it said in the update.
Three of Acacia Mining’s local subsidiaries, an employee and a former staffer have been charged with money laundering and tax evasion.
The news comes barely a week after Acacia said another worker had been released on bail after being charged with corruption.
Acacia, which has tangled in a dispute with the country’s administration for over a year and a half, said The Tanzanian Prevention & Combating of Crime Bureau’s charges are part of an “ongoing investigation into natural resources exploitation” and a “war that the government is waging in the minerals sector.”
Since March 2017, when a ban on concentrates exports came into effect, the Barrick’s unit has faced a series of accusations, including tax evasion and illegal operations, which prompted authorities to question staff and even block one of the firm’s senior executives from leaving the country once.
To make things worse, Tanzania’s President John Magufuli, served the company in July with a $190 billion tax bill.
Acacia Mining, which owns and operates Tanzania’s three major mines — Bulyanhulu, Buzwagi and North Mara, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
The gold miner, which is awaiting a final agreement between Barrick and Magufuli, said it’d discuss with the Canadian gold giant how the recent “significant escalations of government actions” against the company and its employees will be taken into account in their discussion, as Acacia is not directly involved in them.
7 Comments
QUINTIN MCLENNAN
said it’d discuss with the Canadian gold giant how the recent “significant escalations
adding that didn’t know
country in one occasion
Andrés Sorribes Fernandez
Come on, they knowed It or they lost control of tanzania…
???
onemansopinion
It appears that Tanzania negotiates just like Donald Trump.
Ab Irato
I worked for quite a few mining companies in Africa over the past 20 odd years and the company with the highest ethics standards that I worked for was Barrick. Incidentally I worked for the North Mara mine which is one of the accused mines in this vendetta and I can tell you this is a pot of crock. Barrick does everything by the book. There is definitely a sinister motive behind all this. I will bet last month’s pay that the president made a deal to transfer the mineral rights and want Barrick to abandon the project…
Tanzania Business Ethics
The Tanzania people urge President Magufuli and the Attorney General and the Minister of Justice to please request that international warrants for arrests be issued against:
Kelvin Dushnisky;
Brad Gordon;
Katrina White;
Andrew Wray;
Mark Marcombe;
Jaco Maritz;
Gary Chapman;
Michele Ash;
and the others who they know were involved in the crimes of corruption, bribery, money laundering, tax evasion, forgery, and more.
They are NO DIFFERENT to the local employees of Acacia Mining who were arrested this past week. The reality of them hiding overseas does not excuse them from these international crimes, more so that the scheming and planning and execution of most of the crimes were carried out in their UK offices!
Thank you
Tanzania Business Ethics
https://tanzaniabusinessethics.wordpress.com
Email: [email protected]
Robbo
I worked for Acacia for a couple of years under Brad Gordon and visited all the mine sites. I found them to be a very ethical and straightforward Company. Acacia are a good Compnay. Strongly think the Goverment has other alternatives. The Goverment should note you cannot change the past only the future so negotiate for now for your people.
Bill Jackson
What a joke, that mine never mined enough gold to warrant a US$190 billion tax bill since they would have had to mine about US$1 trillion to warrant that tax. Just a kangaroo court game to get a crooked court win and try to use it to confiscate the mine. External courts will see through this and seize what the mine produces in the future. And if you make a deal with China, you will end up with a lot less than Barrick is giving you and if you complain, by then their troops will be on the ground and a ‘people’s revolution’ will occur and you will see what you will see.