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One Ton Gold Shipment Into Hong Kong Revealed To Contain Just Worthless Metal
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 company at Chek Lap Kok airport. It was then couriered to a Tsuen Wan warehouse.
The businessman arrived from Hebei province on Monday and checked into the Kowloon Shangri-La hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui. On Wednesday, he had five of the cases couriered to his buyer's Hung Hom office.
"When he opened the boxes, he found they were filled with metal bars instead of gold bullion," the source said. "He told officers the cases appeared to have been tampered with."
...
A police investigator said: "We don't rule out the possibility that the gold bullion may have been switched for metal bars before being delivered to Hong Kong."
Zhao has reportedly made several such transactions. His business activities include the purchase of iron ore from Australia, Africa and South America.
Four years ago, 265 gold bars were taken from a Yuen Long company. Police arrested three men and recovered most of the HK$90 million in bullion stolen.
We can't help but feel this is not the last time as commodity-backed financings are unwound en masse and the underlying collateral found missing... sourcing the underlying by any means will be on the rise.
* * *
For those who want to learn more about China and gold, please read "How China Imported A Record $70 Billion In Physical Gold Without Sending The Price Of Gold Soaring"
For those curious what a fake 10oz bar looks like, here it is again:
It appears in thise case, the fraudsters could not even afford Tungsten (or maybe the Tungsten was rehypothecated elsewhere)...
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The "average Joe" can't afford much gold and dosn't believe in it anyway.
How can they? Clearly it's backed by nothing: http://www.youtu.be/BiXIs3bbETA
Pretty sure you're the new kid on the block.
Gold is for barter, just like silver. Not for cash. The lower the cash price the better. Sell never ever ever for paper.
Direct trade gold for fuel, transport, armor, security, whatever. barter. Cash will not even exist. Paper money will not be lawful currency when these events happen.
Shirley this is bearish for the price?
{sarc}
yep everyone believes they are holding fake gold and sells on Monday @ 830 AM. And don't call us shirley!
Ghana?
Fuck no
They bought it from some pumper deushe on ZH.
Oh wait maybe ZH IP addresses are really spoofed from Nigeria.
Wouldn't surprise me
Meanwhile at 53 Broad St, Operation "Sardine Cans for Suckers" concludes - to much merriment...
I can forgive the sandine can treatment but it's extra cruel to not make the centre out of Belgian chocolate.
I think their will be a few hit men hired because of this very soon
This should drive the price lower.
that is if shortages can't in this bizzaro world.
Zhao was later heard to say: "No won ghana fook wiff mee..."
Sorry Zhao, my ex wife must of unloaded on you !!!
Tungsten Bitchez, taylor made for divorces !!!
Well, the good news for him is that he at least has tungsten while most of the rest of us have only paper.
"FedRes notes: Not worth the debt they're based upon."
So the Chinese fake gold bars, as opposed to the USA, which fakes an entire economy.
Bud how soon we forget...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9mWAxHpeew
Given the large percentage of goldbugs on ZH, the number of people who don't seem to comprehend Ghana's role in the world gold market is ASTOUNDING.
It's as stupid and uniformed as not comprehending that Iraq, the UAE or Venezuela are in the oil business. However, unlike the gold business, none of the largest producers in the oil business are withholding current production from the marketplace.
Yup, lots of Chinese mining gold in Ghana.
There was a TV show on Discovery Channel about a couple of american morons trying to mine gold in Ghana.
The americans were chased out of the country.
Stack On
What sort of dodgy bastard buys one tonne of gold.
Wonder if it was loaded onto a freshly painted Boeing 777-2H6ER.
Just kidding. Not that much of a conspiracy guy.
be careful out there...check out the pics from inside a Chinese Coin Counterfeiting Ring....http://coins.about.com/od/worldcoins/ig/Chinese-Counterfeiting-Ring/
Logistic mistake. Paperwork got all fucked up. That ship was JPM scheduled shipment for Port of Hamburg.
/sarc
1 Tonne of gold purchased in Ghana ?
Would have had better luck purcahsed in Nigeria , atleast they would have used genuine Tungston.
Chenanigans
If he was smart he paid for these with his American Express. :-}
Chinese Gold Farmers Preview
Ni Hao (A Gold Farmers Story)
Ni Hao Bitchez! Games, reality, statement. Winks.
Zhao zingwong damn well may know where 'his' gold is...watch the claim and see what the insurance dicks come up with...tbc'd
Ghana = fail.
I got my genuine bars from Nigeria.
Shikata Gha Na
Bitchez
Why would anyone use Tungsten to counterfeit gold?
Lead is way cheaper, closer to gold in weight, hardness, and malleability, and can adhere to gold. This has been known for thousands of years.
Uh, NO...
Why don't you look at the DENSITY of lead (Pb) compared to tungsten (W)... lead (11340 kg/m^3) is roughly HALF the density of gold (19320 kg/m^3), while tungsten is 19600 kg/m^3.
Obviously, you're a total dumbfuck, or else you'd know precisely WHY you don't know shit about what you're monkey phalanges are banging out on the keyboard in your little cage. Please, keep your monkey fingers in your monkey nose and monkey ass... they certainly don't belong here.
Yeah, yeah, Chaka like Holly, but Chaka stupid.
Tell us newz liesman on lack of taxpayer infrastructure funding, my tail risk is on. We start debasing Petro-dollar currency. The EPA is your fear. These liberal fuck knobs want money to open and pound out new pussy juice to befall the new complete use of first set of Climate Disruption objectives.
Old pussies get old, so does the Socialist mafia agenda. Winks! Fuck me bitch, fuck me hard. I’ll make you a rich man.. LOL
Stupid cunts selling their cunts to advance in society modeling. Mrs. Atomizer is an honest mate gem. A bit of a flash shot from past. Hope no ZH viewers went blind.
NO, tungsten is the closest in density to gold, lead has a NUCLEUS closest to gold if you were to bombard gold with protons in hopes of changing it into lead.
Zirconium diamond flush meets carbon gold.
/haahahahahaa
Minor Threat - Stumped
Just reading this whole thing put me into the biggest giggle-fit, aided by my usual saturday night 1.5 liter gin and tonic...
One of my clients deals in "scrap" precious metals... mainly being jewelry scrap and "recovered" (read: hacksawed) catalytic converters. He also runs a one-man (not him) shop testing gold coins, bullion, and other "shit".
The guy uses an X RAY FREQUENCY ANALYZER. It costs more than $30,000, but he leases it. You point a hand held "gun" into a bunch of stuff, or a coin, whatever... the readout then indicates the ppm in gold, silver, nickel, whatever-the-fuck might be in your sample. Voila... instant assay. Strangely enough, most of his clients are Russian, and either people know not to dare mess with his own clients, as fake crap would be instantly discovered, even through a cardboard box.
Which leads me to ask... What kind of klown is Zhao Jingjun? And why can't I find these kinds of people to rip off outright?
The Chinaman got the wrong Gold shipment; that Gold was supposed to be shipped to Germany.
violent goldthieves
"Ghana Jingjun Ghana"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekL7o8BQkZM
Beautiful gold, lovely ship-to address
Hijack smiles, oh yes
Beautiful gold, lovely ship-to address
Where it is now I can only guess
'Cause it's ghana, Jingjun, ghana -- your gold is ghana
Yeah, it's ghana, Jingjun, ghana -- your gold is ghana
Yeah, it's ghana, Jingjun, ghana -- your gold is ghana
Yeah, it's ghana, Jingjun, ghana -- your gold is ghana way
Ghana-ghana-ghana chameleon!
I'm Ghana up arrow that, but I think you are two Ghanas short
That's OK, one way or another I'm Ghana get ya, get ya get ya get ya.
Whenever I buy millions of dollars of gold bars at one time, I never do any physical testing either....it's how I got so rich......that testing can be expensive.
I think this is a bogus story trying to scare westerners from buying gold while slamming down the price at the same time.
Agree.
"worthless metal"? Is that anything like "barbarous relic"?
Look at the pix closely and you'll see the stamp that says US Ft. Knox, not on the gold but on the metal underneath.
There are good reasons that "escrow" is a word, Mr. Jingjun. Look it up.
when scammers see that the train is running out of track they try to make one last big money grab before the shit hits the fan.
be alert.
C'mon...did anyone really think that massive counterfeiting wouldn't happen?
People who are serious about their gold should stay FAR away from all these "dealers". That's what I call the "loud market", all the flash and hype and noise. That is where the scammers go, and it is also where too many people go to buy.
I always buy on the "quiet market". Small private sales, where most of the gold I buy is in the form of jewelry. And I can feel perfectly safe because I know that it is EXTREMELY unlikely that the ornate Edwardian bib necklace was counterfeited because of the obvious hand work involved, unlike those bars and coins that can be stamped out easily if you have the machinery and dies.
I don't know, some of the coins are nice, but bars? What do you do with bars? They don't even have a nice design on them or anything. They're just small bricks of gold.
And they're useless for day-to-day expenses...even the smaller gold coins are too 'rich' a currency for everyday use.
So I get the jewelry cheap...much cheaper than the 'spot price' or whatever of the metal. AND it's in the form of something I can use, and trade pretty easily if needed. I might even get a bit more than the metal value if I run into the right buyer...
PLUS, it's a lot easier for a woman to keep her jewelry in the case of government attempts to confiscate (which is unlikely) than it is for her husband to keep his gold bars. Better if he should melt them down and make her something pretty to wear. In India, where they have a healthy appreciation for gold, much of a families wealth is hanging off the wife's ears, neck, on her fingers, etc...I wonder if Indians do that for this reason. Even the most repressive gold laws never went so far as to rip the jewelry off of women's bodies.
ya just can't trust anyone with a few tons of gold...you'd think it really had value...
It's all about the gold, always and forever. This much is certain. Whatever paper games the big guys are playing, when it comes to real wealth and power it is only the gold that matters. Bernanke is one of them. His flippant remarks about gold (barbaric relic) is just a joke, a distraction for the people.
Nobody in TPTB wants the people to own gold, let alone encourage them to go out and buy some/more.
ECB Draghi has announced NIRP. What do you think is next? A return to higher interest rates or a return to a gold standard followed by a currency reset? I'm 100% sure it will not be the former.
The most I would spend in Ghana is $.05......
Let me stop all the silly shit here. NO LOCAL GHANAIAN IS STEALING HK$270MM from a foreign buyer. Unless that buyer is ACTUALLY mentally retarded and BY HIMSELF with ACCESS to HK$270MM. Yes I know the world is going crazy and everything is Bizarro Backwards but you backyard wrestlers need to get a fucking grip. Peanut Gallerying on shit you don't know shit about, save for those hunger ads on late night infomercial tv. Ghana exported 4.2 MILLION OUNCES of gold in 2012. They export gold on a regular basis. They do it all the time. They have a controlled process. There is never fraud. This particular transaction was undertaken outside the official channels or was just JACKED IN CHINA. PERIOD. Get your heads out of your asses. Ghana <> Nigeria. Sorry. Very apparent that there are a number of commenters on ZH who don't know how to use training wheels. Don't comment on shit you don't know anything about. You expose your dumb ass.
Agreed
You don't say... 130 tonnes of gold in 2012 alone. They probably mined as much for the last 10 or 20 years and will keep mining just as much for decades to come.
No wonder the price just keeps dropping. That stuff is literally laying around everywhere in Ghana and probably anywhere in Africa...
#goldlikesand
Sure the Ghanians are straight-just like the 'gold' they sold to the poor schmuck in UAE a couple of years back - 68 tons, I think it was. Of gold-painted dirt. Personal experience buying things from Ghana- three strikes you're out. A nation of child slavers and con artists. Fuck 'em.
Not plausable
The density of gold is almost impossible to replicate. If someone was making a deal this size, surely they could have had someone make a few simple measurement to confirm the authenticity. It really doesn't get more basic than that. Measure the dimensions and weigh it.
Someone was making a $270 million dollar gold deal didn't have the good sense to make sure? it was either an inside job or they saw him coming.
Shanghaied called and DOES NOT appreciate the trespass.
and/or
"this will not stand..man!"
Yes, whenever I put in a search for gold bars "Ghana" always comes up at the top of my Google search followed by "Nigeria."
I mean, if you can't trust the Ghanese [or is it 'Ghanites'?], who can you trust?
This has nothing to do with tungsten. Another decptive article by ZH. The fraudsters exchanged base metal for gold. They didn't coat tungsten with gold. Why does ZH have to distort so much just like the MSM?
The article was clear about that. These guys fail reading comprehension.
I know exactly what the article said, dimwit. But what the fuck does it have to do with tungsten? Nothing? And why the pretty pcitures of gold encrusted tungsten? Has nothing to do with the article, you fucking dimwit.
Before you call others dimwit do your research on how Tungsten is used as base and gold coated as the specific garavity is the same.
Your knowledge is sheer atrocity for ZH.
I will not bother again ever again in reading any of your posts.
Using profane language also gets you nowhere in conveying anything.
Please take fresh courses in English comprehension and then make comments.
Otherwise everyone will just pass you by as a pain in their asses.
I still miss those combat boots, It taught me how fucked up the blowed off global goverent is.
And so they say that all the gold ever minted, if melted would fit into a tennis field 30 feet high, so let me ask you ZH'ers, who owns more of the tennis court, you, or your rich-ass fiat based Bently driving scumbag,married to bitch-ass whore peers?
I prefer silver. All the world's silver can fit a really big sewer.
Melt one side silver and the side of court gold. We've compromised.
So there's no fake gold at all. It was just theft where someone put something in the cases so they would still have some weight to them.Basically the brick in the computer box scam but for heigher stakes.
No such thing as a worthless metal, at least not around here. Posted a scrap broken fridge for free on craigslist the other day. Between phone calls, texts and emails, I got like 25 responses.
A nice 3D printer should be able to print precision tungsten eagles concealed in a layer of gold.
The coins could be printed in such a way that if even cut down the middle, gold would be revealed on all examples.
The ol' Schrodinger's Gold trick
998 kg for HKD 270 Mio. that's USD 35.000 per Kilo. Brilliant deal. Maybe he should not have bought the gold from Ghana. Want to see the email this Chinese super smarty received luring him into the deal. 419 scams should be known in China too.
the story aledged that this was not his first deal. Means they lured him in not only through emails, but pretended a real business. by the way, I would bet with you a golden eagle, that the email header has an ip from england, or france....
Mr Zhao should fire his employee.
On another note, the copper story may relate to the Liu Han & Co corruption case (related to disgraced Zhou Yongkang Security Chief) and their flagship Hanlong group, a bigshot mining corp. that had falsified information to banks. Liu and his brother were sentenced to death along with 36 'mafia' brothers. Perhaps this led to the very dodgy disappearance of the so-called warehoused copper.
Interesting times indeed.
I strongly disagree with the negative comments for buying gold coins on eBay. I had 2 phony NGC graded coins sold to me and I used the tools mentioned by the same detractor here to sort out the problem. NGC photographs their coins at their site for a cross reference. It worked for me and I continue to buy gold on eBay. I grade all my Krugerrands with PCGS for authentication and I keep my receipts for grading submissions. The simple truth is that most people who think they are better, smarter and capable to verify gold for themselves is pure fiction.
About APMEX and others like them this truth; you will be sold and shipped graded coins also. APMEX buys and sells graded coins proudly. This is because there simply is not enough uncertified bullion for sale to ignore graded coins. When gold coins are selling for more than $3,000 an ounce; how many of you geniuses will buy ungraded coins over graded coins? Further, how many new untrained buyers of gold will buy from some of the stupid schmucks writing ignorant generalizing thoughts about graded coins at this site? Regarding eBay and some of the negative generalizing lies published here a question comes to mind? So you bought a bad gold coin from somebody on eBay. HOW WERE YOU DAMAGED WHEN eBay opened a case and then refunded all of your money?
See. You weren't. APMEX has sold me toned modern gold coins...when they claim that they don't sell toned coins! Don't know what toning is? I thought you knew everything about gold! GENuASS!
I strongly disagree with the negative comments for buying gold coins on eBay. I had 2 phony NGC graded coins sold to me and I used the tools mentioned by the same detractor here to sort out the problem. NGC photographs their coins at their site for a cross reference. It worked for me and I continue to buy gold on eBay. I grade all my Krugerrands with PCGS for authentication and I keep my receipts for grading submissions. The simple truth is that most people who think they are better, smarter and capable to verify gold for themselves is pure fiction.
About APMEX and others like them this truth; you will be sold and shipped graded coins also. APMEX buys and sells graded coins proudly. This is because there simply is not enough uncertified bullion for sale to ignore graded coins. When gold coins are selling for more than $3,000 an ounce; how many of you geniuses will buy ungraded coins over graded coins? Further, how many new untrained buyers of gold will buy from some of the stupid schmucks writing ignorant generalizing thoughts about graded coins at this site? Regarding eBay and some of the negative generalizing lies published here a question comes to mind? So you bought a bad gold coin from somebody on eBay. HOW WERE YOU DAMAGED WHEN eBay opened a case and then refunded all of your money?
See. You weren't. APMEX has sold me toned modern gold coins...when they claim that they don't sell toned coins! Don't know what toning is? I thought you knew everything about gold! GENuASS!
Regarding eBay removing the auction records from their listings...It is for damage control and to quarantine liability issues. NGC complained to eBay about selling counterfeit coins in their holders as a copyright infringement. eBay usually moves to avoid frivolous lawsuits while returning the money to the grieving party and taking the auction down. That is called due diligence.
lmfao. Does anyone really believe there is anything but gold foil steel lying in Fart Knox. When the SHTF, even if you have REAL GOLD, you'll find out exchanging it for food, medicine and shelter will be next to impossible. The Exchange rate on your Gold Stash will be all of it for several grams of lead coming out of a 9MM Glock. That being said, I actually think a good investment would be to start hoardinga few tons of those gold foil covered chocolates that are fashioned in the shape of coins. Which would you rather have, the pleasure of taking the foil off of your newly purchased fake gold, or unwrapping a delicious chocolate morsel. Just saying. Biblically speaking....it says they will be throwing their gold in the streets for a piece of bread. As for Little Timmy Geithner and the rest of his Merry Band of thieves.....gonna be lots of fun for them holed up in their safe rooms while the sheeple ransack and pillage their Hampton homes and wait for them to finally come out to meet thier fate.
Oh, did I mention. We're all screwed.
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/monetary-lunacy-alert-keynesian-statists-like-kenneth-rogoff-want-to-criminalize-cash/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Mailing+List+Mid+Day+Friday
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/canary-in-the-iron-ore-pits-prices-plunge-below-100-massive-glut-building/
SNAFU
and its gone...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DT7bX-B1Mg&feature=kp
I see a vision of a forklift driver at the airport, two identical shipping crates, a distraction, and the old sleight-of-forklift.
China ports invented the ol' switch a roo.
Rehypothecation: big word that means stealing.
BTW, I got an email from a prince in Ghana. Seems he's due to inherit $10 million but needs me to loan him $5k and.......
At least they could have filled the center with chocolate.
Buccaneering is still a low-budget way to wage war on the competition.
Good inside information is the key to any operation.
China has a big, fat rat in the grainery.
I have a vision of thousands of bankers swinging from lamp posts in europe as they all revert to the dark ages.
shocking
nobody could have predicted this.
who runs ghana mi6,mossad or cia rothschild.
one for all all for one.
Chineese Larry Silverstein pulls down, pulls off, another insurance deal.
I saw this post on Craigslist for ,
tittle - 1 kg Gold Bullion Bars 96% pure gold 23 Karat - $36500 (Ghana)
link -http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/jwd/4435919009.html
could it be the same add that chinese responded to ?
in that add they give a website for QualityGoldBar.com
http://www.qualitygoldbar.com/
their contact info is
106 Okpoi Igonno Street, Achimota
Accra 00233
Greater Accra
GHANA
I'm guessing that's why no one deals with Willy Wonka, his gold would have chocolate inside!
so that is how those 2 idiots on JUNGLE GOLD bought $35,000 worth of gold for only $5000!
The name sounds ominous
Gold from Ghana is a Goner ( except maybe/of course to the JPM/Goldman mob)
I recently took some money out of my bank account.
The bank gave me paper.
Who can I complain to?