KAMPALA– The State House Anti-Corruption Unit (SHACU) working with other sister Agencies like the Police and the State House Investors Protection Unit, have arrested eight individuals alleged to be behind fake Gold deals in the country.
The suspects include; Tibasiima Barbra alias Katushabe Sharon a Ugandan and Secretary of Emerod Co. Ltd, Paluku Kisasi a Congolese national and purported seller of the gold, Safari Akonkwa a Congolese and a purported clearing Agent at Legacy Refinery Company.
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Others are; Isaac Mpende a Congolese and purported Agent at Legacy Refinery Company limited, Abdul Madjid Kahirima, a Ugandan and purported gold smelter, Mpenge Isaac a Congolese and a purported Agent, Mabwongo Prince Congolese and purported gold seller from Congo and Kajjubi Tevin Kyome, a Ugandan and representative of Emerod Co. Ltd.
On add the press at SHACU head offices at Parliamentary Avenue in Kampala, Bamwine Muhoozi, the Senior Unit Officer revealed that , the suspects tricked Mr. Gbillah into believing they could supply him with seven kilograms of gold through two companies – Legacy Refinery Limited and Emerod Agency Limited , which didn’t have any gold to sell.
“The potential victims who had already lost some money, were still being trailed by the scammers who purported to have vast quantities of gold they wanted to sell to them. We urged them to play along so that we could net the criminals.” Remarked Muhoozi
That, upon arrest of these suspects, search was conducted , th fake gold bars weighing approximately 150kgs were recovered from a rented house in Muyenga where they were operating.
“This is not the first time our Unit has intervened in such cases; however, this particular instance is unique in the sense that we were able to arrest the suspects in the process of scamming the would-be victims, thereby preventing further loss of money to the criminals.”
The members of the general public with any information regarding individuals arrested in the Gold Scam, to share it with it investigators as soon as possible.
Since its inception in 2018, the Unit has received several complaints from victims of gold scams who have been defrauded of hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions of US dollars under the guise of selling gold to them whereas not. Over the past two years, we have intervened and, in collaboration with the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) and with guidance from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), investigated several such complaints, some of which are listed below:
In March, 2023, State House Anti-Corruption Unit received a complaint from Mr Hyun Uk Kim a Korean National about alleged defraud of USD 600,000 by a group of people led by Balondemu David, Mkwe Eric and others.
Alleged theft of a 06 tonnes gold consignment at Entebbe International Airport where the fraudsters conned people under the guise that an aircraft had brought 06 tonnes of gold from Congo to Uganda and that the same was held at Entebbe International Airport. Two suspects, Didier Rosovio and Afeti Ramadhan were arrested and charged in court.
In September, 2024, the Unit investigated a gold scam where it was revealed that counterfeit gold bars had been smuggled into a storage facility at Entebbe International Airport and used to defraud a foreigner. One Kananura Daniel and others were arrested and charged in court.
Defrauding Mr. Christian Andrt, a Dutch national of USD 1.5 M from by a group of people including Peters Kizito Musoke, a Partner at Shonubi Musoke & Co. Advocates in a series of fake gold transactions.
Defrauding Mr. Abraham Caron, a Nigerian national of USD 105,000 from by Dalton Lawrence Kizito and Mackland Egesa in a purported 20kg gold transaction. Both Kizito and Egesa were arrested and charged in court.
Defrauding Osman Hassan and Azim Osman of USD 650,000 from, by a group of people led by Mohamed Awad and a Exxaro Company Limited who purported to be selling to them 780Kgs of gold. Abdul Yousif was arrested and charged in court.
Defrauding Mr Turner Robert, an American citizen of USD 840,000 from by a group led by a one Tshiala Ilunga Junior Noel, a Congolese national. Ilunga was arrested and charged in court, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is yet to prefer charges against other suspects who were involved in the fraud.
The fraudsters behind these criminal schemes majorly deal with Congolese nationals to purport that they have genuine gold and lure innocent people both nationals and foreigners into fraudulent gold dealings.
Like it is the case in fictitious procurement contract scams, the fraudsters also forge correspondences including gold mining and export licenses purportedly issued by Ministry of energy and Mineral developments, invoices purportedly issued by Uganda Revenue Authorities (URA) about tax requirements, Invoices purportedly issued by security companies, flight manifests among others.
In addition, they also create fake websites for non existing courier services on which they create fictitious cargo tracking links for the non exiting goods.
The fraudsters segment the extortion into stages into stages starting with incorporation of a local company where exorbitant fees are collected, gold testing fees, where some genuine gold bars are availed and tested, storage, where they purport to store the gold with a security company, URA fees where the fraudsters purport that there are taxes to be paid by the buyer (victim).
In purported bulk gold transactions, the fraudsters convince the buyer that all the consignment can not be transported at once, thus they convince the buyer in case of a foreigner to travel ahead of the goods.
These kinds of scams have been rampant and tarnish our country’s image, affect our standing as a destination for foreign direct investment, and ultimately undermines the Government’s efforts towards the socio-economic transformation of the nation.
