By Elizabeth Blunt
BBC News, Addis Ababa
Twenty-six people are under arrest over the discovery of 90kg (14 stone) of fake gold in the vaults of Ethiopia’s central bank, a senior official says.
The fraud was discovered after some of the supposed gold was sent to South Africa, where it was found to be gold-plated steel.
Those held are expected to be charged in the next couple of weeks.
Rumours have been flying around the capital Addis Ababa about what happened to the real gold and who was to blame.
Those being held include officials of the national bank, said Berhanu Assefa, a spokesman for Ethiopia’s Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.
The commission has been investigating the case for three months along with Ethiopian police and intelligence officials.
“Around 26 are under arrest – seven from the national bank of Ethiopia, four from the Ethiopian Geological Survey and 15 businessmen and their collaborators have been arrested,” Mr Assefa said.
“No-one has yet been charged – we expect that… our prosecutor will charge them.”
The value of the missing gold was around 158m Ethiopian birr, or $16m for just one of the missing cases, he said, adding this was a huge amount for a poor country such as Ethiopia.
More missing gold
Although this is the most dramatic case that the anti-corruption commission has had to deal with, it is not actually the biggest.
That was a case involving corrupt tendering and procurement at the State Telecommunications Corporation.
The first fake gold to be found was part of a consignment of 90kg bought from a local businessman.
As well as this case, at least one other is likely to follow, this time involving a further 38kg of fake gold.
This was gold which should have been safely locked in the vaults for the past five years, raising the possibility that it had been tampered with while it was inside the central bank.
16 thoughts on “More arrests over Ethiopia’s fake gold”
Read this if you want to know what happened to the gold and evreything Meles and his friends stole http://www.ethiomedia.com/abai/scapegoats_and_thieves.html
keep up the good work and make sure to teach our ppl at the same time that breaking the law in every term is unjust and lead to punishment.
Alex;
who is to be blamed ? Meles! Yet you fingured our hand again on so called Geologist. I know these poor geologists innoncent like Amenti,who don’t talk about any thing other than Geology. Meles , you have to look your friends who are seeking asyulum in Europe and America. Who knows it is you and your friends who had steal the Gold due to the Last Election fear. Please let them Free this Poor Geolgists!!!
Alex;
who is to be blamed ? Meles! Yet you pointed out your fingure again but this time on Geologist. I know these poor geologists innoncent,who don’t talk about any thing other than Geology. Meles , you have to look your friends who are seeking asylum in Europe and America. Who knows it is you and your friends who had steal the Gold due to the Last Election fear. Please let them Free this Poor Geolgists!!!
Ayeee Ethiopia Hagere-Ye Woyane mekeleja honesh hmmmm
Could it be scapegoatism? I feel sorry for the bank officers who are in jail for more than 15 years, whom I believe were used as scape goats for the defaulted loans right after the Eritreans were ordered to leave the country. I assume, either they were forced/ordered to sign on some of the loan agreements or they might have nothing to do with the loans.
Who knows if they are using these people to cover up their intentional mischief.
In my view both NBE Governner Teklewold Atnafu and Sufian Ahimed will not hesitate to make the arrangement for the theft drama. They have ultimate access to the national bank vault.I know this due to my work expereince in National Bank of Ethiopia.The meles government is a proven corrupt, I strongly inclined to believe Meles’s involvement.
History will uncover the truth when the time comes.
aye woyane jiraf rasun gerfo rasu yichohal alu
le effert ena lemitakemacht genzeb mechemeria bato lebaw meles yetewosedewin genzeb minim yemayawku sewochin tasralachihu.Esti yihun lefetari asalifenal egnam
esu medihani alem yifred
Meles Seitanawi will never settle down, rest or sleep until all his political enemies are arrested as suspects of the gold plated steel. For him this is the greatest scheme he has ever devised to destroy his political opponents by implementing each one of them as member of the Ethiopian Geological Survey or as someone who has friends who work at the Ethiopia’s central bank. The fact is, however, Al Amoudi handles everything related to the Ethiopian gold: mining it, selling it, or putting it either in the vaults of the Ethiopia’s central bank or in the Italian Romano bank.
Indeed, the fake gold is in the vaults of the Ethiopia’s central bank, all of it, but the real gold might be either in the house of Meles Seitanawi or in the house of Al Amoudi (alawi=hasetegna), but no one is dared to search the houses of these two notorious Ethiopian criminals. This the so called Ethiopian fake gold thing purposely created by Meles Seitanawi is going to affect the country’ economy, especially in the tourism industry; when tourists come to visit Ethiopia, they want to buy something valuable, but they may hesitate from buying it because they think that it might be fake.
On the other hand, this fake thing is going to help the real Ethiopian artifacts to stay home undisturbed because the tourists, thinking these artifacts are fake, are not going to buy them as they used to before Meles has created this fake thing for his country’s economic demise. This is a great advantage for some of us who do not want to see our Ethiopian paintings, gold crowns, and gold crosses to be sold out to a foreign country. Perhaps, it will take a long time to make the tourists change their minds and have confidence on what they buy from the Ethiopian products, such as gold, silver, and paintings by famous Ethiopian artists.
this might be one of the shortest path for those smart guys who became so rich over night. they took the wrong turn.
let us wait and see, we might find our gold in the many skyscrapers built in the cities. who knows?
thank you
yigermal
03.26.2008.
Check that Gold in the bucket of Meles ( a Well Known Looter), Nowadays he became predator accumulating national wealthy to small minority tribe Tigrey, can any one else emblaze such huge kgms of gold except the Mubuto Sekoseko of Ethiopia and blood sucker Organization TPLF?. Surely, one day justice will come and he will be prosecuted on all these voilations.
Head of the government should be first hand responsible before Ethiopian people. No foolish reasons will be accepted.
“ETHIOPIA HAGERE MOGNE NESH TELALA, YEMUTULISH KERTEW YEGEDELESH BELLA”
…BELLA, BELLA BELLA
My God
What you expect from such fake government.
Yemircha Korojo mekeyer yelemede (Now they changed the gold of national bank by fake GOLD).
Why is Weyane arresting innocent people, every day, in connection with the fake gold?
I know who stole the gold and I know where the real gold is.
The Adwa-mafia-familly stole the gold and it is in Mekelle bank.
A- why then Meles, Bereket, Azeb, and last but not least Seyoum are not arrested yet, B- if the fake gold is in Addis then where is the real gold at?
ሌብነት;መዝረፍ;ማታለል;አየር:በአየር;ጉቦ:
ዩኒቨርስቲ:ጨርሶ:የተመረቀዉ:በደርግ:ጊዜ:መሆኑን:
ሁላችንም: ጠንቅቀን:የምናዉቀው:ነዉ::ሰዉ:ዘርፎ:
ሀብታም:ሲሆን:የሚከበርበት:አንዷ:ሀገር:ኢትዮጵያ:
ነች: አንዳንዶች:ሲናገሩ:ደርግን:በጦርነት:ነዉ:
ያችነፍነዉ:ብለዉ:ይናገራሉ:ደርግን:የጣለዉ:
ከቀበሌ:ጀምሮ:ችርቻሮ;ንግድ:ባንድ;ህንጻ:
ኮንስትራክችን;ቀጥና.. ወዘተ:: የዚህ:ሁሉ:ሌባ:
ውጤት: አለም: ሰባት:ብሎ:ቁጭ:ያለዉን:ደርግ:
ገዝግዞ:ለመጣል:አንደኛዉ:ምክንያት:ሆነዋል::
ኢህ አደግም:ቢሆን:ከዚህ:የተለየ:ሊሆን:አይችልም
ምናልባት:ከደርግ: የሚለየዉ:የአሁኑ:ዘረፋ:
የሚካሄደዉ:በመንግስት:ደረጃ:በመሆኑ:ብቻ:ነዉ::
የዚህን:ዘረፋ:ልዩ:የሚያደርገዉ:ደግሞ:አባቱ:ዳኛ:
ልጁ:ቀማኛ:በመሆኑ:ብቻ:ነዉ::
አመሰግናለሁ