Private plane seized in Gold-Smuggling Case is leased by oil-trading firm CAMAC
By Mike Tolson
Houston Chronicle
Kase and Eileen Lawal at the CAMAC 25th anniversary party at Hobby Center.
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.
was Edward Carlos St. Mary ever arrested for gold and diamond smuggling since the release of the jet from Africa and upon his return to the US? What happened since then? I find no new news. I know his girl friend and trustee, Genice Price. She is being watched for breaching her securities license . She lives in Visalia, Ca. Very much a larsonist!!!!IShe absconded hundreds of thousands of dollars of investors moneys from my husband’s foundation, The H.O.P.E. Intl. Gift Fund. Genice and St. Mary had met with my husband Henry Renovato in the Bahamas just prior to St. Mary’s arrest in Congo. He had been arrested in Nassau for punching a police officer!. Follow the trustee, Genice Price, and you will get to the co-conspiritor of dirty dealings of off shore bank accounts used to hide assets from sales of fraudulent diamonds and also I believe smuggled diamonds and gold. My Husband has worked 22 years in humanitarian outreach. He trusted her to manage the foundation’s accounts, but rather ran off with the assets. My husband is fragile, legally blind, and has epilepsy. she took total advantage of his trust in her while she helped herself to himanitarain bound funds! Both Genice and St. Mary are scumbags!!!Please look into This! Barbara Renovato
Barbara, I would really like to know more about this situation. A good friend of mine recently started dating this woman and he owns 2 businesses. From what I can tell she is digging in deep telling him she’s revamping everything but it sounds more like she’s taking him for a ride. Was she ever arrested for this? I would really like to talk to you!
email me with details
I have newly discovered recorded evidence that my husband was having an affair with Genice Price. They had spent 8 weeks together in the same hotel rooms , over nights, including the 2 weeks at the lavish Michael Jackson suite at the Atlantis Resort in Nassau, Bahamas. Carlos StMary met with them there with a parcel of diamonds which was laundered through my husband s KMA Legacy , then moved to Genices BME trust. I believe they then used the account that belonged to the body guard under the name USOB .Then they had access to that account and withdrew cash from the monetized parcel of diamonds. How else would Genice Price be able to afford the the billing for the most expensive suite at the Atlantis ? As StMarys trustee, she made big bucks assisting in the offshore laundering of his parcel with the expertise of HENRY RENOVATO to guide her..That is how I believe she could afford the suite for herself and my husband .
By the way, I was recovering from a hysterectomy while my husband, Genice Price and Carlos SyMary partied it up in the Bahamas! All 3 of them are scumbags!!!
Genice Price was taking my husband for a ride too. She is a ex pole dancer turned securities agent and got in deed shit for breaching securities law
She is a low life gold digger and she solicited my husband’s advice to get her out of trouble. I have a recording that proves he had her pegged from the begging thinking she could extort money from him. So actually, they were playing each other and she was on the loosing end. Good job Hank. I heard the last recording telling her off, telling her you never had any interest in her ass because ” you’ll fuck anyone to try to get to their bank account and you thought you could get to mine sending me your selfies of your tits and ass? All you did was show me what a low life skank you are and I ain’t interested in your nasty ass. I’m finishing up business and going home to my wife recovering from surgery. She has more honor in her little finger than your psycho ass ever could have in a lifetime. “