Posted on 06/06/2014 12:11:19 PM PDT by blam
Tyler Durden
06/06/2014
Two years ago, stories of fake tungsten-filled gold coins and bars began to spread; it appears, between the shortage of physical gold (after Asian central bank buying) and the increase in smuggling (courtesy of India's controls among others) that gold fraud is back on the rise. As SCMP reports, a mainland China businessman, Zhao Jingjun, discovered that HK$270 million of 998kg of gold bars he bought in Ghana had been swapped for non-precious metal bars. What is perhaps even more worrisome, given the probe into commodity-financing deals and the rehypothecation evaporation; these gold bars were shipped to a Chinese warehouse before Zhao was able to confirm the fraud.
As South China Morning Post reports, police were last night making arrangements with a mainland businessman to check whether HK$270 million of gold bullion he bought in Africa was genuine after part of the consignment was swapped with metal bars.
On Wednesday, Zhao Jingjun, 43, opened part of his shipment in front of his buyer in Hong Kong and discovered the gold had been switched for worthless metal.
A senior officer said it would be the city's biggest heist in a decade if it was confirmed that all the gold had been stolen.
An initial inquiry showed Zhao purchased 998kg of gold bars from a company in Ghana in mid-April, police said.
The consignment, in 14 cases, was escorted by his staff and delivered from Ghana on a chartered flight late last month.
"Officers were told that his employee confirmed the cases contained the gold before it was loaded onto the chartered flight in Ghana," a police source said.
The source said the employee left Hong Kong after the consignment was handed to the staff of a logistics
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
They weren’t even filled with Chocolate? That’s just mean. If you’re going to use fraudulent bullion, it should at least be filled with chocolate.
Yes, I’m from New York; why do you ask?
(The worst thing about gold-coin chocolate: it was almost always that nasty, waxy chocolate.)
This tungsten thing cracks me up. This and similar stuff is why I only do physical junk silver. I just keep buying the stuff. Maybe some day I’ll sell. I dunno...
and tungsten mostly comes from..... China?
Whudduh Assay?
I needed the real stuff muh grill.
Ain’t muh smile purdy?
I think we have a CLUE!................
and tungsten mostly comes from..... Light bulbs?.............
lol
Nobody deserves this more than the Red Chinese; they’ve been pushing lead-painted junk and disposable clothing (wear it once and it melts) on the world for decades.
Yup. For fun, whenever gold comes up in conversation I tell people to google the words gold, China and Tungsten together for a good laugh.
lol
what exactly do you do with overpriced tungsten?
Gyp Chinese businessmen, apparently..............
I think I see the problem.
Ghana? So the ATM card I paid $60 for is no good either??
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