Grapevine

Investor loses Shs5b in Uganda’s gold smuggling underworld

Christian Arndt gasps in exasperation. He can hardly believe that he lost a fortune worth an astronomical $1.5m (Shs5.5b) in six months between 2023 and 2024 to underworld cartels who control the transnational murky trade in gold.

This illicit trade in the precious stones commences inside the bowels across the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) restive Kivu provinces and facilitated by smugglers – runs across the DRC-Uganda porous border points to Kampala, which as the regional gold trade hub continues to gain notoriety for scamming buyers.

Between $300m (Shs1.1 trillion) and $600m (Shs2.2 trillion) worth of gold is smuggled outside the DRC annually and the precious stones continue to sustain brigand and militias operating inside the lawless jungles in eastern DRC.

Today, the German national is scared to return to Uganda after professional cut-throats involved in the deal threatened to harm him. He is also battling charges in Dubai courts filed by his business partners.

Arndt is relying on documentary evidence, which includes videos of the transactions he secretly filmed, including footage where he is visibly seen paying the dealers cash in the dollar currency; payment receipts, sales agreements, and forged documents, including some purported to have originated from URA and the Commissioner for the Mines department at the Energy ministry. We could not independently verify the authenticity of these videos, which are in the possession of Arndt.