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Ethiopia: Police Arrests Five Nbe Executives, Three Chemists Over Gold Fraud
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The Reporter (Addis Ababa)
15 December 2007
Posted to the web 17 December 2007
Kaleyesus Bekel
The Federal Police last week arrested five senior executives of the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) and three chemists working for the geological laboratory of the Ethiopian Geological Survey (EGS) for an alleged involvement in NBE's fraudulent gold purchase.
Executives of NBE who were placed under arrest include division managers and operation heads. The police declined to disclose the identities of the individuals saying it would affect the ongoing investigation. Officials of NBE were not available for comment.
The Police also arrested three chemists from the central geological laboratory of EGS in the person of Sisay Engida, head of the laboratory, Yasin Imam, team leader, and Belachew Berassa, senior chemist.
NBE buys locally produced gold from licensed traders and cooperatives who traditionally mine alluvial (placer) gold in different regions. In the 2006 - 2007 fiscal year, it purchased 1,938.75 kg of gold valued at 311,834,450 birr. From July - October 2007 the bank bought 850 kg of gold. The average price of 1 gm of gold is currently 20 US dollars.
EGS's geological laboratory inspects the quality of the gold and grants quality assurance. NBE, which exports the gold, only came to know recently that some amount of the gold it purchased was not real gold.
An official with EGS told The Reporter that it was one of the traders who supplies gold to NBE who committed the fraud. This individual, who had sold 300 kg gold to NBE, reportedly substituted the real gold with a fake one after he acquired quality certification for the real gold. The where about of the said individual is not yet known. "It is the seller who brings the gold to the geological laboratory and it is the seller who delivers the gold and the quality assurance document to NBE," the official said.
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Commander Demsash Hailu, head the public relations department with the Federal Police, said that the suspects have appeared before court and they were on remand. "We will not disclose the details until we finalize the investigation" he added.
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