Issue #36 | The Gold Rush of Laundering

How Precious-Metal Dealers Exploit Weak Controls

Sabas Francia
November 05, 2025

Hi there,

Welcome to this week’s Polar Insider, your concise, practitioner-focused guide to how financial crime really happens, and what to do about it.

This week, we’re diving into the glittering yet shadowy world of gold and precious metals. From cash-for-gold schemes to trade-based laundering, we expose how weak oversight in the trade continues to challenge global AML systems.

Here’s what’s inside:

The Gold Rush Of Laundering

How do gold dealers and refineries become vehicles for cleaning dirty cash? Here is how.

What’s Happening?

Regulators and FIUs are tracking a surge in the misuse of gold dealers and refineries as laundering vehicles.

The Risk to Banks

Even when banks don’t handle bullion directly, they fund the movement of money tied to the trade. Dealer accounts often show large, fast-moving international transfers with no clear business rationale — a recipe for regulatory and reputational exposure.

What Can You Do?

✅ Apply EDD to any dealer in precious metals or stones (DPMS).
✅Verify trade legitimacy by matching invoices, purity, and routes to market benchmarks.
✅Scrutinize payment patterns and cross-border flows to known gold hubs (Dubai, Panama, Lima).

Pro Tip?

💡If it glitters too easily, it deserves scrutiny.

NTR Metals Miami: When Gold Became a Laundromat

What Happened

NTR Metals Miami was one of America’s largest precious-metal dealers, buying over $3.6 billion in gold from Latin America (2012-2017). Traffickers used drug cash to buy illegally mined gold, which was then exported to Miami as “scrap.” NTR wired payments with minimal due diligence, turning dirty cash into clean dollars.

Discovery & Aftermath

By 2018, three NTR Metals traders pleaded guilty to laundering billions of dollars. Parent company Elemetal LLC lost its LBMA accreditation and paid multi-million penalties.

Key Lessons for Financial Crime Teams

🚨 Process Weakness: Inadequate KYC and transaction testing for high-risk DPMS clients.

🔐Detection Improvement: Compare invoice data against metal market benchmarks to flag undervalued exports.

🧱 Policy Implication: Gold dealers should be treated as high-risk by default under enhanced due diligence policies.

🧠 Ask your team: “Would our system flag a dealer sending $10 million a month to Panama for ‘recycled gold’?”

Stay informed with these critical updates from around the globe:

🇺🇸 United States

FinCEN’s 2025 enforcement wave targets auxiliary sectors linked to high-value goods. Brink’s Global Services was fined $37 million for failing to file SARs on bulk cash shipments, including those serving jewelry and bullion clients.

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

Following the Fowler Oldfield convictions in March 2025, the FCA is reviewing banks’ risk models for clients handling large cash or gold transactions. Updated guidance is expected by mid-2026.

🇦🇺 Australia

From 1 July 2026, AUSTRAC will require all dealers in precious metals, stones, and jewelry to become reporting entities, closing long-criticized gaps.

Key Message

Regulators are tightening controls on auxiliary sectors once considered peripheral. Gold is now firmly in the AML spotlight.

Equip your team with these essential resources to combat shell company risks:

FATF Report – Money Laundering & Gold: Comprehensive analysis of how gold facilitates laundering and terror financing.
📎Link: Money laundering and terrorist financing risks and vulnerabilities associated with gold
AUSTRAC Risk Indicators – Precious Metals & Stones: Real-world red flags and transaction patterns specific to DPMS.
📎Link: Risk insights and indicators of suspicious activity for dealers in precious stones, metals and other products | AUSTRAC
Sanctions.io – Top 5 Red Flags in Gold Trading (2025): Practical checklist for compliance teams monitoring gold-linked clients.
📎Link: Top 5 Red Flags: Identifying Money Laundering in Precious Metals | sanctions.io

"Bullion is portable, valuable and attractive to people wanting to use it illegitimately.”

“If you trade in bullion, you are part of the front line in stopping its exploitation.”

— Brendan Thomas, CEO of AUSTRAC

Anna Stylianou’s analysis of the Fowler Oldfield scandal reveals how a gold business exploited weak internal controls at a major bank, a cautionary tale that echoes this week’s theme.

Read the Fowler Oldfield Case Study - The Fowler Oldfield Money Laundering Scandal - What Went Wrong

Editor’s Note:

The gold trade shows how value can move across borders in plain sight. As regulation finally catches up, financial institutions that build robust DPMS monitoring frameworks today will avoid headlines tomorrow.

Download the 2025 Financial Crime Regulatory Tracker (USA | UK | AU) to stay ahead of beneficial-ownership and AML reform deadlines.

	Polar Insider 2025 - EU/UK Regulatory Tracker55.62 KB • PDF File

	Polar Insider 2025 - USA Regulatory Tracker58.48 KB • PDF File

	Polar Insider 2025 - AU Regulatory Tracker75.62 KB • PDF File

Issue #36 | The Gold Rush of Laundering

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