As a result of the documentary "Gold Mafia" broadcast, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is requesting a retraction and an apology from Al Jazeera. The Presidency calls the video "inaccurate" and "unfair" in light of how President Akufo-Addo is mentioned in it.
Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit (I-Unit) recently published a four-part investigation.
It exposed a number of gold smuggling organizations operating in Southern Africa that assisted alleged criminals in laundering hundreds of millions of dollars while enriching themselves and pillaging their countries.
The investigation into the Gold Mafia by Al Jazeera and what Mathias mentioned about Ghana are related.
Alistair Mathias' comments on Ghana and the reversal
The fourth episode of the investigative documentary Alistair Mathias begins at 1 hour and 13 minutes in and features a gold medallion.
The documentary introduces a gold broker who is alleged to have created money laundering schemes for African dictators.
"On this continent, neither of us [Mathias and his crew] can get to any head of state or president. The king of Swaziland is a good friend of mine; he lives next door. My acquaintance is close friends with the president of Zambia. The president of the DRC Congo has requested that I visit and construct a refinery on many occasions, he added.
Unbeknownst to him, Alistair Mathias, a Canadian man who is also referred to in the documentary as a financial architect, thought he was meeting with Chinese businessmen looking to launder money from Africa, but it turned out that he was actually meeting with Al Jazeera undercover reporters who had assumed the identities of the Chinese businessmen.
He boasted and claimed to have relationships with numerous African leaders during the conference, mentioning Ghana's president [Akufo-Addo] as well.
According to Alistair Mathias, he has access to every president and head of state on the African continent thanks to his profession.
One of the key protagonists in the film, Alistair Mathias, boasted about his connections to African leaders in the final of four episodes of the Investigative Unit of Al Jazeera's undercover investigations into gold smuggling in Africa.
"I have an excellent friendship with the president of Ghana." He was actually my attorney. I recognize Cyril Ramaphosa here. "I know his kids," Mathias boasted during the encounter with the fictitious reporters.
The about-face by Alistair Mathias on Ghana
However, Alistair Mathias changed his mind about knowing Ghana's president after the undercover investigation and when Aljazeera contacted him.
"Mr. Mathias denied ever being awarded any tender by the Ghanaian government or entering into any government contracts in any African country," it was claimed before the Al Jazeera video's conclusion.
"Ghana's President Akufo-Addo told Al Jazeera that he had no recollection of representing Alistair Mathias or his company as a lawyer," Al Jazeera said.
Al Jazeera claims that after his encounter with the undercover reporters, Mathias "denied that he designed mechanisms to launder money and said that he had not laundered money or traded when asked for a formal comment about the findings of Al Jazeera's investigation."
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