The collusion between the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo and the Chinese company Zhong Fu Development to dispossess U.S. investors of a mineral processing plant in 2025 underscores the lack of legal certainty in Nicaragua. An economist consulted for this report warned that the unusual statement issued Saturday, February 21, by the Attorney General’s Office suggests the dictatorship fears the case could receive close scrutiny in the United States.
The Attorney General’s Office (PGJ), which recently brought the General Directorate of Mines under its authority, insisted in its statement that mining concessions comply with “due process and transparency.” It also noted that information about concession holders is published in official resolutions in La Gaceta, the government’s official gazette.
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Former Deputy Finance Minister Juan Sebastián Chamorro believes that in the case involving the owners of BHMB Mining Nicaragua, S.A., the regime is aware “that an investigation is underway and understands the consequences. The investigation stems from the fact that this is a U.S. company that was arbitrarily confiscated.”
BHMB Mining Nicaragua, S.A. is owned by BHMB Inc., a U.S.- and British-capital company incorporated in Florida. According to its owners, it operated a mineral processing plant valued at more than $80 million in Palacagüina, in northern Nicaragua.
“The statement from the Attorney General’s Office confirms their fears about this case. Obviously, they would have preferred to resolve it another way. The urgency suggests they know this process is reaching higher levels,” Chamorro told LA PRENSA.
According to investigations by LA PRENSA, the Ortega-Murillo family also holds business interests in the mining sector. Chamorro rejected the government’s claim of transparency, arguing that the pattern shows the opposite. Official resolutions list the concession holder, location, area and duration, according to the PGJ—but the entities involved are often unknown companies and individuals.
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Shadowy Chinese firms
The Chinese firms involved lack a track record in the sector, and their representatives are largely unknown. By October 2025, concessions granted by the state to such companies covered 5 percent of the national territory. Critics have focused on the government’s failure to enforce environmental regulations when granting these licenses and the potential ecological damage, as warned by the Fundación del Río.
In its statement, the PGJ dismissed criticism of its role as “baseless publications.” However, the BHMB case highlights the reality faced by the private sector under the dictatorship.
“In this case, we are talking about a company duly registered as American, and this will obviously not go unnoticed by the U.S. administration. It reflects what the vast majority of small, medium and large business owners in Nicaragua endure every day: tax harassment, extortion and all kinds of pressure to extract economic resources,” Chamorro added.
BHMB Mining: A Step-by-Step Takeover
On February 25, an editorial in LA PRENSA titled “The Murky and Lucrative Business of the Dictatorship with Nicaragua’s Gold” analyzed the seizure of the BHMB Mining Nicaragua facilities. According to the article, the case demonstrates the lack of transparency and the extent of the regime’s shared interests with Chinese companies.
The dispossession took place on September 18, 2025. Details were first reported in an in-depth investigation by LA PRENSA. The plant, located in Palacagüina, processed material from artisanal miners. Although the company held a ten-year permit, investors had operated the facility since October 2021.
The ordeal began on August 12, according to anonymous sources. Representatives from the Ministry of Energy and Mines informed the plant manager that operations had to cease immediately. Subsequent requests for clarification went unanswered.
“Control of Facilities Handed to Chinese Companies”
Baruch Rapaport, legal representative of BHMB Mining Nicaragua S.A., confirmed that the state’s seizure benefited entities linked to Chinese firms.
“In our case, a U.S.-origin company with registered investment and legal operations was shut down, its assets confiscated and de facto control of its facilities transferred to entities linked to Chinese companies that also received significant concessions,” Rapaport told LA PRENSA.
On August 22, 2025, workers bearing the emblems of Zhong Fu Development and Santa Rita Mining arrived at the plant alongside a small group of Nicaraguans. They claimed to be working under Minister Salvador Mansell, who at the time oversaw the Directorate of Mines.
Three days later, the U.S. investors received notice that their assets had been confiscated. According to Rapaport, attorney Aníbal Vladimir Matus Buitrago and Chinese nationals Feiwu Bian and Chunqing Sun managed the expropriation of BHMB Mining Nicaragua, S.A.
In the September 30, 2025 edition of the official gazette, Bian appears as Zhong Fu’s representative, with Matus listed as the company’s attorney. Santa Rita Mining is represented by Sun. All three are members of the Nicaragua-China Chamber of Industry and Commerce, a nonprofit founded in January 2024.
Rapaport said that on September 9, individuals linked to these companies returned, accompanied by PGJ personnel and representatives from the Ministry of Mines. They broke locks and gates and, with the assistance of armed individuals, forcibly removed security personnel and workers. Security cameras documented the events, which resulted in the de facto transfer of control of the facilities to Chinese-linked entities.
For Rapaport, the case highlights that Western companies in general — and American firms in particular — may face expropriation risks, while Chinese companies assume an increasingly prominent role in the sector, a shift also reflected in tax burdens imposed on other Western mining firms.
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He said the PGJ statement must be understood within a context of growing geopolitical pressure surrounding mining activity in Nicaragua, including remarks by the president of Costa Rica about rising illegal mining in the region and plans to raise the issue with his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump.
In February, the U.S. Senate advanced a bill aimed at curbing illegal mining in Nicaragua, focused on mining companies and “legal gold” in the United States, which has already received a favorable opinion from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
A System Controlled by the Ortegas
Millions of dollars are at stake in Nicaragua’s gold business. Exports totaled more than $1.96 billion in 2025. The sector is directly controlled by the Ortega-Murillo family. Under this scheme, the state has imposed tax penalties on established mining companies while opening the door to Chinese firms — a move environmentalists describe as a “reconfiguration” of the national gold sector. Rapaport agrees with the term.
“It is a reconfiguration of the sector that appears to respond more to political considerations than economic ones,” he said, declining to comment directly on the governing family’s broader influence in the business, as previously reported by the U.S. State Department and LA PRENSA investigations.
On May 15, 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Compañía Minera Internacional, S.A. (Comintsa), controlled by Mansell, and Capital Mining Investment Nicaragua, S.A., controlled by the dictators’ son, Laureano Ortega Murillo, who also serves as the regime’s liaison with China, Russia and Iran.
A recent investigation by LA PRENSA revealed an extortion scheme built around a corporate network tied to Ortega Murillo.
Through Capital Mining, proxies linked to the Ortega business secure material from small-scale miners to process at the Grupo Minero Xiloá (Grumixsa) plant in Villanueva, Chinandega. Profits from this operation derive not from gold trading itself, but from processing fees and client acquisition — a five percent commission. Conservative estimates suggest the operation has generated at least $80 million in 16 months.
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Another key company tied to the ruling family’s interests is Suministro y Montaje Electromecánico, which charges established firms five percent of “gross annual sales of substances extracted, produced in the country and supplied by artisanal miners.”
According to a LA PRENSA editorial, these requirements have been imposed on foreign companies operating in the sector since 2020. The payments are in addition to tax obligations, and firms have reportedly been pressured to cede up to 20 percent of their shares to individuals designated by the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
This tightly controlled system has enabled Chinese mining firms such as XinXin Linze Minería Group — granted 10 state concessions to explore 155,055 hectares — to export $25.6 million worth of Nicaraguan gold to Miami between January and August 2025.
