100 or 300 Million Of Marange Diamonds From Zimbabwe Gone Missing

One hundred million or three hundred million—it depends upon who you believe.

According to an article in the Zimbabwe Standard posted on February 13th, over $100 million worth of diamonds have allegedly gone missing.

However, in another article, the Times Live reports that the real total is 300 million. The Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, noted that the recent diamond sales have “lacked transparency.”

The Standard article reports that Zimbabwe had two diamond auctions last year, sponsored by the Kimberley Certification Process. However, there was also third auction that was secretly held and only came to light when Mugabe promised to give $250 million to civil servants.

The missing funds were from that third auction. The article did not reveal who the buyers at that auction were.

According to insiders familiar with the situation in Zimbabwe, the theft of large amounts of money is common. What is not typical is that this type of evidence actually appeared in the press.

There was speculation in the Standard article that Mugabe’s political party used the diamonds to fund election campaigns.

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