07 11 13 Forbes – Swiss Gold Refiner Accused Of Abetting Congo War Via Money Laundering

Now the net has widened. The Swiss nonprofit TRIAL announced Monday that it was targeting a Swiss gold refinery part owned by Commerzbank Commerzbank
and the Austrian mint for refining gold from the Congo.  TRIAL said it
filed a criminal complaint against gold refiner Argor-Heraeus SA,
accusing the firm of refining 3 tons of gold ore pillaged from the
Democratic Republic of the Congo between 2004 and 2005.  TRIAL suspects
Argor-Heraeus “of being guilty of the crime of laundering the proceeds
of a major crime … and handling goods pillaged during an armed
conflict,” it said in a statement.

According
to TRIAL, Argor-Heraeus knew, or at the least should have assumed, that
these raw materials were the proceeds of pillage, which is a war crime.
TRIAL is petitioning the Swiss criminal authorities to determine if
Argor-Heraeus did indeed commit criminal acts.

The
criminal complaint comes after nearly a decade of investigation. In
2004, the United Nations Security Council convened a group of experts to
investigate illegal exploitation of natural resources in the Congo. The
UN-appointed team, including a U.S. investigator named Kathi Lynn
Austin, documented the role of several organizations and individuals
involved in the pillage and smuggling of gold from the northeast region
of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including the UK company Hussar
Services Limited, the Jersey (Channel Islands) company Hussar Limited,
and the Swiss refiner Argor-Heraeus SA.

The
UN team was able to show how gold mined in northeastern Congo was
shipped to Uganda and then Switzerland to be processed into ingots so
its origins would be concealed. TRIAL argues that Argor-Heraeus should
have known the gold was pillaged from the Congo.

Argor-Heraeus
denied the accusations in a statement released Monday. The refiner
asserts that it was cleared of money laundering allegations by an
investigation performed by the United Nations, the Swiss State
Secretariat for Economic Affairs and the Swiss Financial Market
Supervisory Authority.

The
Swiss nonprofit TRIAL received significant help with its
investitagation from two U.S. parties. Following her work at the UN
group, Austin garnered the support of the Open Society Justice
Initiative (a nonprofit funded by billionaire investor George Soros)
and continued to investigate Hussar Limited and Argor-Heraeus.  Austin
and the Open Society Justice Institute worked with TRIAL to collect
documentation that led to filing the criminal complaint.

Now
it is in the hands of the Swiss prosecutors to decide whether to pursue
criminal money laundering charges against Argor-Heraeus. The refiner is
owned partly by German company Heraeus, 26.5% by Commerzbank Int. of
Luxembourg, and 24.3% by the Austrian Mint of Vienna.