Leaked files obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists show how a Dubai-based gold trader cosied up to the Swazi king's son-in-law to allegedly launder money from South Africa to Dubai through the tiny African kingdom.

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Leaked documents from the Eswatini Financial Intelligence Unit (EFIU) reveal how, in late 2018, the kingdom's authorities began secretly investigating suspicious payments amounting to tens of millions of rands between entities linked to two politically connected businessmen.

The investigation raised red flags regarding the relationship between Keenin Schofield, son-in-law of King Mswati III, and a Dubai-based businessman, Alistair Mathias, who claimed to be a close friend of the king.

Mathias was accused in a 2023 Al Jazeera documentary of being one of the architects behind a vast scheme to smuggle gold out of Zimbabwe, allegedly with the complicity of the Mnangagwa regime.

The leaks reveal how millions of rands emanating from a Johannesburg company named AMFS moved rapidly through entities controlled by Schofield and Mathias before ultimately being transferred to Dubai.

This raised suspicions within Eswatini's authorities that the pair "might be using the country as a conduit for smuggling illegally obtained Gold out of Africa through Eswatini to the United Arab Emirates under the guise of a company," and that this was being done to "conceal the true source and purpose of the funds received and transferred",...