Gold Laundering

Gold laundering is the process by which illegally obtained gold is melted down and recast into another form, such as an ingot or bar, to obscure its true origin before it is sold and converted into clean cash; the term can also describe a money laundering transaction in which gold itself is the good being exchanged. The gold entering the laundering process is acquired in various illegal ways, including unlicensed small scale and artisanal mining and outright theft, most notoriously the forced seizure of gold from Jewish victims by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, some of which passed through the Swiss National Bank and other institutions before later restitution efforts. Once acquired, the gold is treated as scrap, melted at its melting point of about one thousand and sixty four degrees Celsius, and purified through processes such as the Miller process or the Wohlwill process, after which it can be difficult to trace to its illegal source because refining removes the impurities that would otherwise allow gold fingerprinting. Some countries have introduced tagging and disclosure regimes to curb the practice, such as Rwanda's mineral trade regulations, though enforcement gaps allow smuggling to continue, and organizations such as InSight Crime have linked illegal gold mining revenue to armed groups including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.