Fraud and corruption charges in South Africa In November 1999, after investigating Rautenbach for about two years, South African law enforcement conducted a raid on Rautenbach's
Johannesburg home and private aircraft, as well as the Johannesburg offices of Wheels of Africa. Following the raid and amid financial strain in his South African business interests, He faced charges for crimes he had allegedly committed while at Hyundai, including numerous counts of
fraud and theft. In March 2007, South African authorities filed for his extradition from
Zimbabwe. on behalf of one of his companies, SA Botswana Hauliers, and, in a plea bargain, agreed to pay a fine of R40 million in exchange for the withdrawal of the charges against him, having continued to deny personal liability.
Death of Yong Koo Kwon Rautenbach launched a legal challenge against the validity of the 1999 raids and the evidence seized in the process, with the Constitutional Court ultimately ruling against him. In court papers, the state claimed that Rautenbach was linked to the murder of
Yong Koo Kwon of
Daewoo Motors, who had been shot dead in his car in
Johannesburg in February 1999. Rautenbach emphatically denied any involvement in the murder and described the allegations as a "witch-hunt." No charges were ever laid against Rautenbach, while three other men were charged with the murder in 2006.
Corruption trial of Jackie Selebi Two months after striking the 2009 plea bargain with the NPA, Rautenbach testified for the prosecution in the corruption trial of
Jackie Selebi, National Commissioner of the
South African Police Service. Selebi was accused of accepting bribes from Rautenbach and two other businessmen. During the trial, convicted drug smuggler Glen Agliotti testified that Selebi had been asked to intervene in NPA and
South African Revenue Service (SARS) investigations into Rautenbach, to cancel Rautenbach's arrest warrant, and to provide information about whether Rautenbach was wanted by
Interpol, of which Selebi was president. Agliotti said, and Rautenbach confirmed,
Alleged ties to ZANU-PF in Zimbabwe Critics alleged that Rautenbach had been appointed to
Gécamines, the Congolese state-owned mining company, at the request of the Zimbabwean ruling party,
ZANU-PF. Indeed, in 1999,
The Guardian revealed that the existence of such an arrangement had been "a widespread assumption in diplomatic circles." In 1999, Rautenbach denied the allegations, saying that he had never met
Robert Mugabe. The payment was financed with capital raised primarily from the American hedge fund
Och-Ziff, and was reportedly used by ZANU-PF to fund its repressive
2008 election campaign. Shortly afterwards, in October 2008, the American embassy in Zimbabwe investigated Rautenbach for his involvement in off-the-book sales of vehicles to the Zimbabwean government. The sanctions remained in place until April 2014. Rautenbach was also subject to targeted
European Union sanctions from January 2009 until February 2012,
Suisse Secrets The
2022 Data Leaks at
Credit Suisse appeared to confirm earlier allegations that Rautenbach had supported the Mugabe regime's campaign during the 2008 Zimbabwean elections. Credit Suisse opened two accounts for Rautenbach just weeks before a mining deal that funneled $100 million to Mugabe's government, reportedly used to finance violence that helped secure Mugabe's victory. Rautenbach later sold his shares from the deal for a substantial profit, although the mine remained abandoned and undeveloped for more than a decade. Nyabadza denied the allegations, and Rautenbach called Mliswa, who at the time was demanding millions of dollars he claimed Rautenbach owed him for investment consulting services, an "extortionist." In 2019, Mliswa made various further accusations about Rautenbach's ventures in Zimbabwe and connections to the Zimbabwean government.
Land and other disputes According to
amaBhungane, local activists claim that Green Fuel has encroached on communal land in Chipinge, displacing thousands of families, without sufficient compensation. They also claim that the firm has polluted the water, bulldozed maize fields to build a road, and failed to honour its promises to pay sugarcane growers $4 a tonne. Chipinge residents, supported by the non-profit
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, are challenging Green Fuel's claim to the land in the courts. A 2015 report by the
Zimbabwean Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment echoed many of these accusations and concluded that the project violated the country's
indigenisation laws. It also learned from the Environmental Management Agency that Green Fuel had not conducted a full environmental impact assessment study, as required by law, before initiating the project. Green Fuel has denied the accusations, stating that, through its
corporate social responsibility programme, Vimbo, it has spent millions of dollars on developing the neighbouring villages and providing irrigation, electricity, and stock feed to villagers. It has committed to developing irrigation schemes, dedicating 10% of all land to sugar cane, and, in 2021, it unveiled one such scheme, among the highest in the country, in Chisumbanje, under which it provided
drip irrigation equipment and plots to villagers. The company has also denied claims that the plant's effluent is a pollutant. By 2021, it employed about 3,000 people. According to the headman of the village, thousands of displaced residents of Chipinge were resettling in neighbouring Mozambique.
Pandora Papers As reported by
amaBhungane in the
Daily Maverick, Rautenbach was named in the 2021
Pandora Papers leak. The leak provided evidence of a complex offshore family trust fund, begun in 2013 when Rautenbach, while still under American sanctions, donated multimillion-dollar investments in his coal and ethanol businesses to his wife.The fund is held in Rautenbach's wife's name, but in leaked documents, financial advisors identified Rautenbach as the "effective controller" of the fund. ==Personal life==