From:Â Sasha Schwendenwein
Sent:Â 01 June 2018 04:36 PM
To:Â josesilve; ruipereira
Subject:Â Carte Blanche request: CACICAMBRA
Good Afternoon,
Hope you are well. My name is Sasha and I am a journalist with Carte Blanche in South Africa. Please see my questions – as I require a response by 5pm, Monday 4, June, 2018.
CARTE BLANCHE LETTER CASICAMBRA
Kind regards,
On 01 Jun 2018, at 20:01, Rui Pereira wrote:
Dear Sasha,
Thank you for your contact. We are very interested in clarifying our unfortunate association with this situation. We have already met and talked with Kathi Austin (who I presume you know) and we will send you our full account by Monday. You’ll be surprised how the story goes beyond poaching and into business fraud, as we will explain soon.
Best regards,
Rui Pereira
Cacicambra, S.A.
De:Â Sasha Schwendenwein
Enviada: sábado, 2 de junho de 2018 03:46
Para:Â Rui Pereira
Assunto:Â Re: Carte Blanche request: CACICAMBRA
Thank you Mr. Pereira,
I think clarification would assist us – as the Czech Republic Embassy also said they have warned a number of a companies about re-exportation of weapons, as this is illegal. Please could you give us more clarification on that as well.
Kind regards,
Sasha Wein
From:Â Rui Pereira
Sent:Â 02 June 2018 01:04 PM
To:Â Sasha Schwendenwein
Subject:Â RE: Carte Blanche request: CACICAMBRA
Dear Sasha Wein,
The first time that we were asked about the sale of rifles detected in Rhino poaching was by Kathi Lynn Austin (about mid 2016) from the Conflict Awareness Project. She came to visit us in Portugal, after having already been at the C.Z. factory in the Czech Republic. 4 rifle serial numbers that she brought to us had been sold by Cacicambra to Afrocaça – having followed all necessary licensing and export procedures.
We were able to confirm that in Mozambique, these guns had all been sold by Afrocaça to the Ministry of Agriculture (together with more rifles – about 40 in total, by public tender in early 2012) to be distributed to national park rangers. And this is the end of Cacicambra’s knowledge about the final destination of these guns.
The story involving Exploafrica is quite different. I’ll try to be brief and clear, but it is a long story. Cacicambra is the leading company in Portugal in the hunting and shooting sector. We distribute renowned brands of guns, ammunition and accessories through wholesale to gunshops and through our 3 own retail shops. We are also licensed for sales to Military and Law Enforcement institutions. Another business unit is the export to the Portuguese speaking African countries.
From 2006 until 2012, Cacicambra’s owner partnered with another Portuguese businessman to create a gunshop in Maputo, Mozambique. This company was called Afrocaça, Lda. Business grew steadily and soon Afrocaça was invited to supply also public institutions in Mozambique, like the Bank of Mozambique, the Police, Interior Ministry, and the forest department (Ministry of Agriculture), among others.
Tragically, in late 2011, the other partner of Afrocaça passed away with a sudden disease. A son of this partner was already living in Maputo and handling some of the simple operations of the company. With the delay in clarifying the inheritance and ownership, this son, Mr. Miguel Moura, assumed the control of Afrocaça (without consent from Cacicambra).
One of his first steps was to clear all Afrocaça bank accounts, by transferring the money to one of his own companies: Exploafrica. The legal conflict that followed was settled later in 2013 with the forced sale of Cacicambra’s position in Afrocaça, but reflecting the sad fact that Afrocaça had been hijacked from us. This is sadly a regular story in many African countries. A foreign investor starts a business with a local partner and when it is strong, solid and financially interesting, it becomes a target for greedy opportunists. We were the victims of such a scheme.
A second step that Mr. Miguel Moura took was quite infuriating for us and it concerns CZ. In this period of late 2011, Afrocaça was competing in another tender for the Ministry of Agriculture for more rifles for the park guards. Having won the tender, we Cacicambra (as Afrocaça’s main supplier) ordered the guns from CZ – which delivered to Portugal. At the same time, Exploafrica also ordered the same guns to CZ which accepted the money (stolen from Afrocaça – by the way) and the order, and delivered directly to Exploafrica in Mozambique. We have no idea what Exploafrica did with these guns that they received directly from CZ.Â
Having realized this, Cacicambra was left stuck with the guns in Portugal, where most of them are still now, as Kathi Austin had the opportunity to see in our gun vault.
Finally, a clarification about the re-export procedures. Re-export is not illegal by itself, it is a procedure that requires authorization from the country of origin. Cacicambra started to work with CZ in 2006 with the agreed purpose (by written contract) to supply the territory of Mozambique exclusively. At that time there were other Portuguese companies responsible for the Portuguese market, so all guns shipped from CZ to Cacicambra in Portugal were destined for re-export to Mozambique, and all paperwork and licenses reflected this from the origin.
After the disloyal situation described above of the double sale to Mozambique by CZ, Cacicambra stopped business with CZ for about 8 months. By coincidence, during that period, CZ had problems with the Portuguese distributor for Portugal, so they came to us again, to restart business, but this time for the Portuguese market. We accepted, and since late 2012, Cacicambra is the exclusive CZ distributor to the Portuguese market, and has not re-exported any more guns to Mozambique.
Another note: Cacicambra or Afrocaça (at least during the period under our control) had no business or even knowledge of the company Investcon –ltd or other possible export clients. All of our business was exclusively conducted in Mozambique, we were not involved in any re-export situation from Mozambique.
I hope this account is understandable, and in case you need any more details, please feel free to contact us. Thank you, and congratulations in advance for your work in exposing poaching and illegal gun trafficking. We are a very serious company, respected worldwide, and owned by hunters, who abhor abuse within our sector, even because the legal operators, or gun owners, or respectable hunters are many times the ones that have more to lose or can be immediately affected by the bad and illegal behaviour of others.
With best regards,
Rui Pereira
Cacicambra, S.A.
Â
Â