Colombia: Crime Ring Laundered $1 Billion in Colombia Gold Exports

Jan 19, 2015 | Elyssa Pachico, In Sight Crime
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Colombia's Attorney General's Office announced the results of an investigation involving an illegal network that had allegedly laundered $1 billion through gold sales, in a case revealing how criminals use gold exports to disguise dirty cash. 

In a press release, Colombia's assistant attorney general called it "the most important" blow yet against money laundering networks that rely on gold. 

The two-year investigation centered on gold export company Goldex, and its owner John Uber Hernandez Santa. El Tiempo reported that the Attorney General's Office issued 26 arrest warrants for people linked to Goldex, including one for Hernandez. The company is accused of using fake gold sales to launder some 2.3 billion pesos (just over $1 billion), according to the Attorney General's Office, and was reportedly spread across at least five departments in Colombia. Investigators found that many of the 6,000 alleged providers of gold to Goldex didn't exist, or were registered in the names of people now deceased, according to El Tiempo.