From ABC News

Despite living in an impoverished country under sanctions, some in Zimbabwe seem awash in money, judging by the Mercedes-Benzes parked at a country club and the private woodland estate with artificial lake and mansion built by the nation’s police chief.

The wealth enjoyed by just a few comes, at least in part, from the vast Marange diamond field that was exposed by an earth tremor in 2006. The deposit in eastern Zimbabwe is the biggest diamond field found in Africa for a century, worth billions of dollars.

Now, as most Zimbabweans remain mired in poverty, with government coffers short on funds to build and maintain the nation’s roads, clinics, utility services and schools, questions are being asked as to where all the money went and who benefited.

A recent bipartisan parliamentary investigation concluded that tens of millions of dollars in diamond earnings are missing from 2012 alone. The lawmakers who wrote the unprecedented and unusually candid report said their “worst fears were confirmed” by evidence of “underhand dealings” and diamond smuggling since 2009.

In a speech opening parliament on Sept. 17, President Robert Mugabe took the rare step of accusing one top mining official and ruling party loyalist of accepting a $6 million bribe from Ghanaian investors to obtain diamond mining rights in Marange. Mugabe said Godwills Masimirembwa took the bribe when he was head of the state Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation which is in charge of mining concessions.

Masimirembwa quit that post to contest the July 31 national election as a candidate for Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party but failed to win a parliament seat. Masimirembwa denies any wrongdoing.

Read more at abcnews.go.com