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Lawmakers and witnesses push U.S. action on illicit gold trade, sanctions and banking ties to African conflicts
Summary
At a House subcommittee hearing, experts described how illicit gold flows — including purchases by UAE refiners and record Chinese buying — channel revenue to armed actors in Sudan and the DRC and urged an interagency illicit-gold task force, stronger FinCEN/OFAC engagement and improved monitoring of global gold trading centers.
Experts at a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing urged U.S. enforcement and industry coordination to disrupt illicit gold flows that they said finance armed groups in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere.
Sasha Lehi Lesdev described large-scale smuggling and refiners that buy conflict gold and move it through global trading centers. "We need a much better system to independently monitor global gold trading centers," he said, noting past U.S. and EU actions and urging a dedicated U.S. task force and banking alerts to trace flows.
Why it matters: Witnesses told lawmakers that unmonitored gold purchases and two-year delays in trade data mean sanctions bodies and banks lag behind…
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