A forgery crisis is quietly roiling the world's gold industry.
Gold bars fraudulently stamped with the logos of major refineries are being inserted into the global market to launder smuggled or illegal gold, refining and banking executives tell Reuters. The fakes are hard to detect, making them an ideal fund-runner for narcotics dealers or warlords.
High gold prices have triggered a boom in informal and illegal mining since the mid-2000s. Without the stamp of a prestigious refinery, such gold would be forced into underground networks, or priced at a discount.
When others who store and trade such gold found forged bars, they returned them to the refiner concerned, some of whom have operations in Asia. Bars returned to Switzerland have been reported by refiners to the Swiss authorities who impounded them, refiners said. In China, almost all exports of gold are banned as part of the country's strict, longstanding controls on capital movements. That, market analysts say, has spurred demand among well-to-do Chinese who want to send money out of the country to find ways to smuggle it.
For recipients, the pirated bars pose a compliance threat: Anyone who holds such metal - including jewelers, banks and electronics firms - risks inadvertently violating global rules designed to keep metal of unknown or criminal origin out of circulation. The rules aim to staunch gold supplies that fund conflict, terrorism or organized crime, damage the environment or undermine national governments.
The perfect appearance makes the bars highly effective."Because gold is completely fungible," Hayes said,"you can bleed it into genuine production. It's very, very hard to control." Other banks have also restricted gold purchases in Asia, 15 people in the industry said."Anything that has even the chance of being iffy they are not going to be involved in," said Alexander, the analyst at GFMS Refinitiv.
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