Gold concentrates significant financial value into small volumes, crosses borders easily, and can be melted down or resold without keeping any visible link to its origin. FATF identifies it as particularly vulnerable to documentary fraud, illicit origin and money laundering, precisely because of these characteristics. The physical existence of gold never proves, on its own, the legitimacy of its origin, ownership of the product, or authority to sell it.
Origin: More Categories Than It Looks
Industrial-mined gold, artisanal or small-scale mined gold, doré, refined gold, recycled gold, or industrial residues and by-products, each category carries different risk, documentation and traceability mechanisms. A generic certificate of origin isn't enough when the rest of the chain doesn't show how the metal moved from its declared source to the current seller. Where a Red Flag exists, or a risk can't reasonably be excluded, OECD guidance calls for deeper examination of origin, suppliers, locations and the circumstances of production, illegal mining and conflict areas included.
Assay, Weight and Purity: the Right Document, the Wrong Lot
A technically plausible assay report may not correspond to the lot on offer. A recognised inspection company's name or logo on the page doesn't, by itself, confirm that company issued the document. We test whether the result actually ties to specific bars, packaging, seals or serial numbers, not just whether it "looks" correct.
"LBMA Certified" Isn't What Most People Think It Is
A Good Delivery refinery and a bar with the right markings confirm the producer met requirements for quality, shape and weight. They don't confirm the seller owns that gold, that the specific lot exists, or that it's available for sale. Inclusion on a recognised list never proves, on its own, the existence, ownership or availability of the bars presented in this transaction.
Possession Is Not the Same as Ownership
Who physically holds the gold, who holds documentary custody, and who has the right to sell it are three different questions, often with three different answers. Photographs, videos or certificates alone don't demonstrate current control over the product.
Price and Payment
An exceptional discount against the international price needs a verifiable economic explanation, refining, quality, location, financing need, not just urgency designed to draw an early payment. Upfront payment requests for taxes, licences or metal "release", late changes to banking details, and commissions split across multiple intermediaries are the signals we see most often in this sector.
Gold can carry intrinsic value. The transaction only becomes credible when origin, ownership, quality, custody and payment form one continuous chain of evidence.
