Goldbug ping (apologies to hose already pinged in previous replies)
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Posted on 01/17/2011 7:56:05 AM PST by Cardhu
The family of ousted Tunisian President Zine El Abidin Ben Ali has reportedly fled the country with 1.5 tons of gold worth more than 45 million euros.
Citing information received form the French secret services, the French newspaper, Le Monde, disclosed on Monday that Leila Trabelsi, the wife of the ousted president, took the gold bars out of the country before the collapse of Ben Ali's regime.
Ben Ali's 23-year rule ended on Friday after weeks of street protests all over the North African country.
"According to information gathered in Tunis, Leila Trabelsi, the president's wife allegedly went to the Bank of Tunisia for gold bars. The director of the bank refused. Mrs. Ben Ali called her husband, who had also initially refused, but then agreed," the newspaper said.
After receiving the gold bars, Treabelsi flew to Dubai before leaving for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, the paper said.
"It seems that the wife of Ben Ali is the party who left with 1.5 tons of gold worth 45 million euros," a senior French official told the daily.
Reports also confirmed that Trabelsi had been in Dubai for several days.
In the past weeks, there have been massive street protests across Tunisia against what has been described as the theft of Tunisian wealth and lack of opportunities for the average citizen.
Many of Ben Ali's family members have left the African country for fear of personal safety.
On Saturday, a day after Ben Ali fled to Jeddah, luxury cars were smashed and shops and homes were looted and burned in the Tunisian capital, Tunis.
Ben Ali ruled Tunisia for more than two decades. His era was marred by repeated human rights violations and torture.
On Sunday, acting leaders in Tunisia discussed the composition of a unity government as post-revolution unrest continues to grip the North African country.
But how are they supposed to survive on only $64.8M ?
Goldbug ping (apologies to hose already pinged in previous replies)
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Thanks for the ping.
A cubic foot of gold weighs 1208 pounds.
Read more: What size cube would one ton of 24K Gold ingot be? | Answerbag http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/50997#ixzz1BJgZ9nea
Oh, they aren’t going to keep it, they are just protecting it until its safe to bring it back, ahem
Despots always get special treatment. You couldn’t get $10K of gold out of the US legally to sit in your Caymans Is safe.
The Chinese will buy it for dollars - they are buying everything they can with all the dollars they want to unload. :)
One would think these tin horn dictators would have the sense to spirit gold somewhere else prior to the time the manure hits the fan...
It will be an interesting test of “International Law” to see if this blatent expropriation is allowed to stand.
Lets see. 48,000 oz’s would be loaded into 2,400 20 oz tubes as American Eagles are usually packaged. That would make a 75x36 grid of tubes. It would easily fit on top of standard size folding table. If you put stacked the tubes 3 levels high you would have a 25x36x3 “tube” stack. If you stacked them 9 units high it would be 25x12x9 tube stack
The silver tube I have handy is almost exactly 1.75” square and just under 3” high. So you could fit this amount of gold, packaged in tubes, into a 44 X 21 X 27” container.
In other words it would fit in a very large trunk. But it would be VERY VERY VERY HEAVY.
How, pray tell, does anyone “flee” with 1.5 tonnes of anything? You’d think airport security would notice...
When you are the President for life’s wife you do not go through security and probably have your own private jet.
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