‘$50M EMERALDS SMUGGLED’
According to documents filed in the Ndola High court Gemcanton’s Abdoulaye Ndiaye has been accused of receiving US $50million from the sale of emeralds without declaring it to the government and the Zambia Revenue Authority.
MORE
than US$50 million worth of Zambian emeralds have been smuggled and illegally sold with the proceeds banked in Switzerland to avoid taxes, court papers have revealed.
According to documents filed in the Ndola High Court Gemcanton’s Abdoulaye Ndiaye has been accused of receiving US $50million for the sale of emeralds without declaring it to the government and the Zambia Revenue Authority.
He has also been accused of spending more than US$21m in expenditure he could not account for, to his Israeli partners.
However more intriguingly, the ownership of Germcanton Emerald Mines has been disputed with information at PACRA showing that Mr. Ndiaye was not a shareholder of the company while the defamation submission indicated that he was indeed a shareholder.
These revelations are made in explosive documentation submitted to the Ndola High Court in defence and counterclaim papers filed by former Manager Eli Nefussy who was recently deported from Zambia and has been sued for defamation by Mr. Ndiaye.
In his defence Mr. Nefussy has insisted that Zambian emeralds were being sold privately without Government knowledge and that attempts to regularise the situation, had led to his deportation because Mr. Ndiaye wielded tremendous influence in the government where he had allegedly bought ministers.
This is in the matter in which Ndiaye sued Eli Nefussy for defamation of character over a story published by the News Diggers online.
In his counterclaim, Mr Nefussy has accused Mr Ndiaye of underhand dealings including tax evasion and failure to declare sale of emeralds valued at $50m which he did not deliver to the buyer despite receiving the money.
This also follows the freezing of Mr Ndiaye’s assets through a world wide freeze order issued in London court. According to the London Court, Mr Ndiaye’s assets would remain frozen until the more than $50 million is paid to the appellant in the matter
Mr Nefussy, who was the official representative of the Israeli partner in Gemcanton, said the emerald sales in the company has not been accounted for
He claims that Mr Ndiaye had made private sales in India and the proceeds have not been accounted for.
The court papers reveal that the Senegalese claimed he had government officials on his payroll and that there was no explanation for $21 million expenditures because he had refused or failed to convene a board meeting to discuss the expenditure despite written requests from Mr Neffusy.
The defendant also claims that Mr Ndiaye, as chairman of Gemcanton Investment Holdings Limited through his interest in Wolle Mining Limited, has employed several dozens of Senegalese nationals as security guards using fake qualifications availed to the Immigration Department.
He has also accused Mr Ndiaye of transferring shareholding in Wolle Mining Limited to another company, Astele Mining Limited, without following the laid down procedures, an action that Mr Neffusy deems to be in breach of the plaintiff’s unequivocal undertaking not to move his assets to avoid paying debts.
Mr Ndiaye has also been accused of paying himself $700,000 from the company on the pretext that it was a loan repayment to himself, which the defendant claims was contrary to the Laws of Zambia and the company policy.