Finance Uncovered partnered with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) to work on an unprecedented leak of documents obtained from the Financial Intelligence Unit of Ewatini, the tiny landlocked kingdom in southern Africa formerly known as Swaziland.

The leak laid open for the first time the internal workings of an African anti-money laundering unit as it pursued investigations into a wide range of suspicious activity.

Known as the Swazi Secrets project, we trawled through over 870,000 documents obtained by transparency non-profit, Distributed Denial of Secrets.

Working with the ICIJ-led consortium, we combed through correspondence, investigative records, and analysis. The result provided an unparalleled insight into how the Eswatini Financial Intelligence Unit (EFIU) walked a tightrope in fulfilling its responsibilities in a country dominated by an all-powerful king.

Eswatini, which is locked between South Africa and Mozambique, has a population of 1.2 million people with a high level of unemployment and poverty and the county is one of the last remaining absolute monarchies in the world.

FU's reporter Warren Thompson travelled to Eswatini in late 2023 along with journalists from the ICIJ and South Africa’s amaBhungane to interview sources and meet officials. This led to a collaboration between Finance Uncovered and the ICIJ on two of the more prominent investigations which led to articles on the ICIJ website.

The articles published by the rest of the 36 journalists in the consortium included a cast of dubious characters, many of them with connections to the Royal Household of King Mswati III, who has ruled the country since 1986.

Investigations also revealed how, despite the best intentions of its staff, the EFIU and other regulators and law enforcement agencies were susceptible to political interference. We showed that reports and investigations handed over to prosecutorial agencies were simply ignored or not acted upon.

This even extended to the licensing of a new bank. Despite major concerns by the central bank and the EFIU regarding the source of the capital for Farmers Bank, repeated political interference ensured the licensing went ahead.

Our investigation into the regional gold smuggling network showed how Eswatini became a hub for illicit money moving from South Africa to Dubai. It also showed how the country’s much-touted Special Economic Zones (SEZ’s) were open to abuse by businessmen who would want to use the country as a conduit for illicit gains.

Our gold smuggling story centred on the king’s son-in-law who was suspected of laundering money in tandem with an alleged gold smuggler. Despite evidence of the questionable conduct being handed over to the country’s anti-corruption commission, no charges have been brought almost six years on.

The government did not engage substantively with any of the issues raised in the articles. It instead chose to label the leaks as the theft of confidential documents.

Please read:

How international gold dealers exploited a tiny African kingdom’s economic dream here: https://www.icij.org/investigations/swazi-secrets/eswatini-mswati-economic-zone-gold-dubai

The central bank in a tiny African country tried to block a suspicious banking venture. Then the king’s allies intervened: https://www.icij.org/investigations/swazi-secrets/eswatini-farmers-bank-rijkenberg-belumbu/