Precious Metal Transaction Due Diligence: Saving a Client USD 150 Million

Our Client based in the United Kingdom (UK) was keen on purchasing gold from the East Africa Market. The Client’s transactions had a contract value of about one hundred and fifty million dollars (USD 150 million) whereby the first phase of the transaction was to be about USD 15 million or thereabouts.

We received instructions to conduct due diligence concerning the agents’, and the sellers of the alleged hard commodity. We proceeded to engage in our preliminary desktop research that involves engaging public and private for access to key resources that determine the next steps that touch on field research procedures. Furthermore, we assessed the contract to determine the tone and intention of the sellers and its agents. The contract to a transaction gives a clear view of a party intention, which is quite essential in determining whether it is a sincere transaction.

Our assessment resulted in determining that the agents and sellers were scammers with ongoing cases before the Courts of the Republic of Kenya, there were unclear tax payment procedures which would lead to the Client disbursing funds in a private account, problematic reputational information from key government agencies, among others. As a result, the Client stopped the engagement with the agents and sellers resulting in saving itself from being scammed.