An investigation has highlighted the role of Dubai-registered companies in routes used to trade illicit African gold. Some of those firms have been placed under US sanctions over links to networks dealing in conflict-related gold. Several of the routes are connected to Belgian gold trader Alain Goetz’s network.
When the US Treasury imposed sanctions on the network in March 2022, it said the group had helped finance armed conflict by receiving Congolese gold without verifying its origin. The department said the network’s refinery sourced gold from mines in South Kivu province controlled by armed groups.
Trade data show that at least 11 tonnes of gold from Rwanda were exported in 2024 to PGR Gold Trading LLC, a Dubai-registered company included by the United States among entities linked to the Goetz network.
Documents reviewed by the US organization The Sentry also show that Uganda’s African Gold Refinery, sanctioned by Washington alongside Goetz, exported nearly $377 million worth of gold in 2017 to a Dubai company linked to him. At the time, concerns had been raised about gold from eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo entering global markets.
A US diplomatic document from 2017 says Goetz told an official at the US embassy in Kampala that about 156 tonnes of gold had been smuggled to the Middle East in luggage carried on business-class flights. He also acknowledged that he could not trace the origin of the gold exported by his refinery.
In 2026, the European Union and the United States sanctioned a Rwandan refinery linked to Goetz for processing smuggled gold from mines in the DRC controlled by rebels. Companies connected to the network continued to feature in African gold trade routes.
The Swiss organization SWISSAID estimates that smuggled African gold entering global markets each year is worth between $24 billion and $35 billion, with a large share passing through the UAE. The number of registered traders in precious metals and gemstones in the UAE rose from about 4,500 in 2022 to 8,000 in 2025.
Ivan Schultz, a SWISSAID researcher, says UAE gold-trading companies, which account for the largest share of gold imports, face less stringent controls. He describes this as a “major loophole.” The findings portray the UAE as more than a transit point: it is also part of a system that enables African gold linked to conflict and sanctions to reach global markets.