Main points

• Due to its ease of movement and global exchangeability, gold tends to attract illicit actors.
• Criminal culpability in illicit gold flows ranges from small-scale informal activities to grand corruption by political elites. While it differs based on context, political elites, military, non-state armed groups, businesspeople and foreign nationals comprise the key actors in illicit gold supply chains.
• Between 10 and 20 tons of gold, worth between US$300 and US$600 million, is smuggled out of the DRC annually, based on an estimate of the UN Group of Experts from 2013.
• Evidence show large discrepancies between gold imported into the United Arab Emirates from African countries, and the amount of gold reported in these countries in their exports.
• Harms associated with illicit gold flows include: environmental damage, human rights abuses, undermining the rule of law, strengthening of armed groups in conflict zones and negative effects on countries’ economies.