A Canadian international based in Dubai has once again boasted of his illegal gold smuggling abilities which occurs in Ghana.
Alistair Mathias, one the individuals recorded with secret cameras in the Al Jazeera undercover investigation called ‘Gold Mafia’ has indicated that he was at one point the biggest gold smuggler in Ghana.
In the first episode of the documentary, Mathias told undercover journalists that he could smuggle about US$40 million to $60 million worth of gold from Ghana every month.
This development left some citizens in Ghana with shock as to how the activity was conducted and gone unnoticed for so long.
But in the third episode of the four-part documentary aired by Al Jazeera on April 6, 2023, undercover journalists discovered that one of the companies Alistair Mathias used for his gold smuggling activities was Guldrest Resources Ghana.
The company, which is registered in Ghana, is well documented in FinCEN Files following an investigation carried out in 2020 and is a member of the Chamber of Bullion Traders Ghana.
Although its offices could not be traced by the Al Jazeera investigative team, Mathias is said to have used this firm to launder money all over the world through other companies and refineries with clients such as African politicians, Russians and others criminal cartels.
However, documents shared on the ‘Gold Mafia’ documentary showed that Mathias’ Guldrest Resources firm conducted transactions of about $16 million with Kaloti Precious Metals at a specific time.
In an interaction with undercover reporters from Al Jazeera, Alistair Mathias explained that to legitimise his money laundering activities, he had to register other companies across the world covering places like Switzerland, Dubai and Africa.
“I do it here [Switzerland] more for track record because If I have an existing business here then the source of funding is not a problem so that’s why I have set ups everywhere. Whatever is like…grey area I take in to Dubai.
“In Ghana I was the biggest at one point… I was doing one tonne and one a half tonne every month so about 40 to 60 million dollars every month I was exporting [smuggled gold] out of Ghana,” Alistair Mathias told the female undercover journalist posing as an investor.
While Guldrest Resources Ghana has denied ever engaging in money laundering or Alistair Mathias being the owner or serving as a director of the company, it is part of some five gold exporters in Ghana cited in connection with highly suspicious dealings with businesses including Kaloti Precious Metals Group.
These transactions included transfers of funds within the gold industry amounting to about $2.8 billion.
Documents and records, according to Al Jazeera, also showed that the bank compliance officers had reason to believe that Kaloti Precious Metals had dealt in suspicious transactions in illegal gold over a period of time with some of these funds paid to companies located in Ghana.
From November 9, 2011 to August 28, 2012, FinCEN Files showed that Guldrest Resources Ghana received 58 transactions totaling $83 million ($83,040,000.00) from Kaloti for trading in gold and purpose of payment was stated as gold trading B/O Gold Diam Export.
Another record further revealed that Guldrest Resources Ghana was listed to have received 37 transactions totaling $30.3 million ($30,368,560.00) between November 5, 2012 and April 8, 2013 which were from Kaloti Precious Metal for gold trading purposes.
With additional files from Ghana Business News
MA/DA
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