Ascorp
ASCorp is the abbreviation for the Angolan diamond trading company Angola Selling Corporation . The company is a joint venture between Endiama , Lev Leviev Group and Omega Diamonds . It sells the rough diamonds extracted in the resource-rich South West African country on the world market.
history
It was founded as Ascorp - Diamond Trading Company in 2000 in Luanda . Its chairman is Firmino Valeriano . The organization is partly state and privately divided. In addition to private investors, the government of Angola is also a shareholder in the company. The basic rule is that all transactions must be processed through the Angolan diamond trading company Endiama . This national company was formed in 1981, on the one hand by funds of the State of Angola and the public. Ascorp is headquartered in Luanda.
Ascorp (Angola) is a joint venture with a 51 percent share of the State of Angola, the Jewish diamond dealer Lev Leviev and Omega Diamonds , Antwerp , Belgium and Endiama (Empresa Nacional de Diamantes de Angola). Lev Leviev, who allegedly sold the concept of Ascorp to Angolans, is now overseeing the marketing of Angolan diamonds.
Combating diamond smuggling
Angola's diamonds were a source of finance for the Unita rebel army under Jonas Savimbi for decades . Today, profits from diamond sales are part of the self-service of Angola's government elites. Strict mining regulations to control the spread of so-called blood diamonds have resulted in the diamond industry now concentrating on a handful of respectable companies. The most successful among them is the Angolan Ascorp.
According to Angolan law, the entire diamond trade must be carried out by Endiama itself or an organization close to it, a role that Ascorp (Angola) has played since it was founded in February 2000. Ascorp supports the government in its ongoing program to master and register the illegal diamond trade. Ascorp's main goals are to combat diamond smuggling, as the United Nations required in resolutions. In addition, to increase sales in order to secure the national budget and reinvestment of profits in other areas of the developing Angolan economy. This is because diamonds are a non-renewable resource .
Rumors of billions of dollars postponed
However, the organization temporarily hit the headlines in 2001 because it had usurped the entire Angolan diamond business within its sphere of responsibility. It was rumored and suspected that a deliberately brought about price reduction for rough diamonds encouraged smuggling and thus huge amounts of money were to be shifted abroad. It was also assumed that the shareholders of the Ascorp Group were well connected with the President of Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos , in order to make the profit made in the diamond trade disappear abroad a million times over. Indeed, during this time, verifiably high billions of dollars disappeared into unknown channels. Rumors were also spread that Ascorp, Angola, was involved in the illegal arms and ammunition trade.
Riots and riots in Angola's diamond areas
Due to the general dissatisfaction of the small diamond prospectors and the resulting regular flare-ups with fatalities in the diamond mining area of Lunda province, the government ended the four-year monopoly of Ascorp in 2003. The diamond marketing company was therefore forced to compete with other private companies to get diamonds.
In October 2008, for example, residents from the provinces of Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul , the diamond regions in northeast Angola, reported that they had been victims of systematic violence, humiliation, rape, deprivation, arrest and displacement. Massive attacks by the military have caused hundreds of thousands, a large part of them from the PR Congo , to flee the diamond regions. Diamonds are the cause of their suffering. The guilty parties are the government (military), the diamond companies and the private security company Alfa-5 , who use rude methods, arrogance and eviction to protect their business ideas against the little Garimpeiros (miners) and which have also caused quite a number of deaths so far.
Current situation
Today, every legal purchase of Angola's rough diamonds goes exclusively through a company called Sodiam (Sociedade de Comercialização de Diamantes de Angola), in which Lev Leviev also owns a share. Sodiam, responsible for marketing, is a 99 percent subsidiary of the state-owned mining company Endiama. In the further process, the diamonds are made available to the broader market and channeled through Ascorp. The Leviev-Angola deal seems to be working well, although the sellers are grumbling and dissatisfied. Ascorp, the only legal diamond marketer, is firmly in control of the Angolan diamond business.
Angola has recently stepped up efforts to diversify mining in order to reduce reliance on the dominant diamond sector. A corresponding program has been announced by the Mining Ministry. A new mining law was also expected for 2010, but not implemented. There are also further projects in the diamond mining sector, since the deposits are only 50% exploited.
Individual evidence
- ↑ ANIP - Agência Nacional de Investimento Privado ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed August 16, 2011
- ↑ Forbes.com: Lev Leviev Acquires Most Successful Cartel in the World March 15, 2009
- ^ WG Peace Research: Blood diamonds now with official seal September 22, 2000, accessed April 7, 2011
- ↑ Business and human right resource center: Eyewitness account of mistreatment of private diamond prospectors (English), accessed April 7, 2011
- ↑ researchandmarkets.com: Angola Mining Report Q1 2011 , December 2010, accessed February 21, 2011
- ^ Allafrica.com: allAfrica.com: Angola: Creation of Mining Development Entity Recommended , February 20, 2011, accessed February 21, 2011
