Malawi, a small African nation with big ambitions, has taken on a massive fight. The government is demanding an astonishing $313 billion in unpaid taxes and revenue from three powerful companies: a US-based gemstone dealer, a French energy giant, and a Turkish tobacco firm. This amount is nearly 300 times more than the country’s national debt of $1.2 billion!
The Main Players
At the heart of the battle is Columbia Gem House, a family-owned American company accused of underreporting the value of precious rubies it exported from Malawi over the past decade. Malawi’s Attorney General, Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda, says Columbia owes $309 billion, including interest, for allegedly undervaluing these gemstones.
Nyirenda claims the company’s own records and website statements (some of which have since been deleted) reveal discrepancies. Columbia, however, calls the accusations “baseless and defamatory,” arguing that Malawi could never have produced trillions of dollars worth of gemst...
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