WAtoday | Hamish Hastie – UpdatedMarch 10, 2023 — 10.14am first published at 8.12am
The London Bullion Marketing Association has launched an official investigation into the Perth Mint.
Just a day after it confirmed it was seeking more information about the Perth Mint’s gold doping program that ran from 2018 to September 2021, as well as claims it wasn’t complying with anti-money laundering regulations, the world’s biggest gold exchange confirmed it had launched an “incident review process”.
The LBMA’s review will investigate claims made by Four Corners on Monday night, the first of which was that it was not meeting strict anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism funding obligations, which could mean hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in fines lumped on the state-owned trading enterprise.
The report also claimed the Perth Mint sold gold to the Shanghai Gold Exchange that did not meet that exchange’s strict purity standards following a dilution program to improve margins by just $620,000 per year.
The Perth Mint is a member of the LBMA, which is the world’s largest precious metals exchange that sets global standards for gold purity.