Written by Hoston Chronicle
Thursday, 24 February 2011 13:50
Plane seized in gold-smuggling case is
leased by oil-trading firm CAMAC
By MIKE TOLSON, HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Feb. 22, 2011
Kase and Eileen Lawal at the CAMAC 25th
anniversary party at Hobby Center.
Houston oil trader provided jet for ill-
fated Congo gold mission
A private jet that flew four international
businessmen to the Democratic Republic
of the Congo where they are being held
on gold-smuggling allegations was
provided by CAMAC International, a
Houston oil-trading company owned by
one of the city's richest men and a
brother of one of the passengers.
A private jet that flew four international
businessmen to the Democratic Republic
of the Congo where they are being held
on gold-smuggling allegations was
provided by CAMAC International, a
Houston oil-trading company owned by
one of the city's richest men and a
brother of one of the passengers.
Kase Lawal, a Nigerian-born immigrant
who has overseen CAMAC's rise to a $2.4
billion private company — said to be the
second-largest black-owned business in
the U.S. — and who was recently
appointed to an advisory post in the
Obama administration, is the half-brother
of Mukaila Aderemi "Mickey" Lawal, who
was detained along with fellow
Houstonian Carlos St. Mary and two other
businessmen as their plane was
preparing to depart from Goma, a city in
the mineral-laden eastern half of Congo.
The country recently banned the export
of gold and other key minerals in an
attempt to decriminalize its mining
industries.
A CAMAC spokesman would not explain
why Mickey Lawal, a 50-year-old
company executive in charge of Nigerian
operations, was on the plane or what his
role in the transaction may have been.
He also did not say why CAMAC allowed
the Gulfstream it leases from a Dallas
company to be used in the mysterious
mission, which ended on Feb. 3 when
Congolese intelligence police arrested the
men and flight crew, impounded the
plane and seized almost $7 million in U.S.
dollars, and gold bars valued at some $20
million.Letter from attorney
"As long as the crew and passengers are
still in the Congo, we don't want to make
any particular comments about the
situation," said spokesman Mike
Androvett.
Androvett said St. Mary made the request
for the jet.
"He asked for permission to use it,"
Androvett said. "His family and the Lawal
family are longtime friends."
For additional background on the deal,
Androvett referred to a letter purportedly
written by a Kenyan lawyer on behalf of
Axiom Trading, St. Mary's company.
The lawyer, Punit Vadgama, wrote the
letter dated Feb. 9 to the president of the
Democratic Republic of Congo, claiming
that Axiom contacted him in December to
set up a Kenyan company to obtain
licenses and permits for a legal gold
transaction that supposedly began when
"a person named David" approached St.
Mary in the U.S.
According to Vadgama's letter, "David"
had agreed to sell Axiom 475 kilograms of
gold at a certain price, with the deal to
take place in Kenya and to be legally
documented. When the group arrived in
Kenya, St. Mary and his partners began to
suspect they might be getting duped
when they made partial payment and
suddenly could no longer contact the
Kenyan "owner" of the gold who was
orchestrating the deal, E. Michelle D.
Malonga.
After notifying Kenyan police of the
possible swindle in January, Axiom was
again contacted by Malonga and told the
gold had been taken out of Kenya to
Uganda, and that the deal would have to
be done there, according to the letter.
The purchasers refused. Then Malonga
allegedly said the gold was in Congo and
that the deal had to go down in Goma.
They agreed, went to Goma, paid Malonga
and his associates and had the gold
loaded onto the aircraft.Whose cash was
it?
Congolese authorities stepped in before
the various parties to the deal could
leave. It is not clear from whom almost $7
million in cash was seized.
Early reports from Congo said it was in the
possession of men taking it to the
residence of Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, who
was indicted for alleged war crimes by the
International Criminal Court.
Ntaganda denied any involvement,
however, and later official reports said
the general was involved in stopping an
attempt to smuggle Congolese gold out of
the country.
Attorney Vadgama insists his clients
were the victims of a fraud — not
smugglers.
"Had they been smugglers, why would
they alert a revenue authority and police
body in Kenya to assist them in obtaining
goods that they had paid for," Vadgama
wrote. "Our clients have acted within the
law and have been victims of a fraud
perpetrated upon them."
Kase Lawal, 56, came to the U.S. in the
1970s and earned degrees from Texas
Southern University and Prairie View
A&M.
Well-connected politically to members of
both major parties, he was named by
President Barack Obama to the Advisory
Committee on Trade Policy and
Negotiations.

Kase Lawal’s Brother Arrested In
Congolese Gold-Smuggling Ring
By SaharaReporters, New York
Houston-based Nigerian businessman,
Kase Lawa, name has popped up in the
gold-smuggling ring arrested by the
police at the eastern Democratic Republic
of Congo two weeks ago.
Mr. Lawal ’s brother of Mukaila Lawal a.k.a
"Mickey"-who runs Mr. Kase lawal’s
Nigerian operations- was in the jet which
had been seized after Congolese
authorities found $7 million and more
thatn $20 million of gold that was
heading out of the eastern Congo.
Mr. Lawal was arrested after a car chase
after the authorities suspected foul play
and chased after the group with police
cruisers.
Latest revelations in the case links Kase
Lawal with the group having a private jet
that flew the men to the Congo, his multi-
billion dollar company, CAMAC
International, leased the jet , a
Gulfstream IV, from a Dallas company and
sent it to the Congo for the operation.
Mr. Kase Lawal who was once considered
a fugitive from law as an arrest warrant
was issued by the High Court in Lagos
against him in 1999, a period that marked
a boom in his businesses, especially in
South Africa where he secured the
assistance of ANC officials in making
huge profits from an oil deal that involved
Nigeria and South Africa.
In 1999 the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) found out that
Mr. Kase Lawal was part of the Osahon
group that were involved in stealing an oil
well. Shortly after the investigations
began Mr. Lawal had escaped from
Nigeria.
However, when late president Umaru
Yar'adua came to power, Lawal, became
close to his wife, Hajia Turai Yar'adua and
leveraged his influence with the late
president's kitchen cabinet to get oil
lifting contracts. Soon as yar'adua
passed, Mr. Lawal became a member of
current Goodluck Jonathan's Presidential
Advisory Committee.