Report: Dikembe Mutombo Involved in Major Gold Scam

by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni Throughout his life and basketball career, Dikembe Mutombo was known for blocking shots, wagging his finger after said blocked shots, and for doing tireless humanitarian work in the Congo. According to some business associates of Mutombo’s, Dikembe’s name and image aren’t entirely clean. They allege that the retired big man was part of a multi-million dollar gold scam. The Houston Chronicle has a fascinating report on the sordid affair: Mutombo was in New York on a more personal cause — trying to interest a Houston oil executive in a $10 million deal to buy 1,045 pounds of gold from the mines of eastern Congo, the heart of the conflict mineral trade. If Mutombo had reservations about the apparent contradiction between word and deed, he did not show it. He eagerly explained how he and his family had 4 tons of Congolese gold just waiting for a buyer. Enter Kase Lawal. As chairman of CAMAC, a Houston energy company, Lawal knew Mutombo...