matic passport from the Zimbabwean government, which he be- lieved would grant him the ability to travel to many countries without being searched, and potentially provide immunity from criminal prosecution. “We understand you have a lot of influence there,” Le Roux told him. Ben-Menashe later claimed that he quickly informed Le Roux that a diplomatic passport was out of the question. The land—three hundred square miles of it—could be arranged.

Le Roux’s passport request raised some suspicions, Ben-Menashe said, so he asked friends in Zimbabwean intelligence to look a lit- tle deeper into Paul Calder Le Roux. They reported back that he was born out of wedlock to a mother in Bulawayo, then adopted by another family. After Mugabe’s takeover instituted majority black rule, when Le Roux was a child, his family left for South Africa. He was now married to a woman of Chinese origin from Curaçao who carried a Dutch passport. Le Roux also “had some connections with the U.S. government,” Ben-Menashe claimed his Zimbabwean contacts informed him, without specifics.

According to disclosure forms Ben-Menashe filed with the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Le Roux paid Dickens & Madson $6 million for their services. Le Roux “deals in Internet commerce and in the installation of call centers in Southeast Asia, Costa Rica, and Israel,” the forms stated. “He intends to become involved in leasing of real estate for farm- ing and other purposes in Zimbabwe.” Dickens & Madson would, in addition to lobbying Mugabe’s government directly, “attempt to arrange meetings with representatives of the executive and leg- islative branches of the U.S. government” to lobby for policies fa- vorable to the land purchases. Ben-Menashe then introduced Le Roux to a Zimbabwean government minister in charge of land reform. “They kissed and hugged, I’ll never forget it, white Paul Le Roux and this minister,” Ben-Menashe said. “And the minister told Le Roux, ‘Welcome back home.’” As far as Ben-Menashe un- derstood, the land leases were a done deal.