Gold rush: Inside GoldBod’s link to gold laundered to India

By Seth J. Bokpe & Kwaku Krobea Asante of The Fourth Estate, with Alexander Abdelilah and Anouk Aflalo Doré of Forbidden Stories and Ayushi Kar of The Reporters’ Collective

It is a quiet upscale street in Santasi, a suburb of Kumasi, lined with shops and houses. Popularly known as Abude Junction, it’s a hub for the gold trade. 

Although Goldbod’s operations have led to Indian traders closing their shops in this area, in reality, they are lurking in the shadows, using Ghanaians to front for them or simply staying in mining communities, renting or fixing excavators.

The Indian traders’ method is simple: they buy at a higher price than on the legal market. Kofi (not his real name), an unlicensed buyer in the Ashanti region, estimates that the price difference is nearly 20%, or about 14,000 euros for a kilogram of gold. For discretion, the team met him in his car, on a vacant lot in the suburbs of Kumasi.

“On the black market, you can sell to the Chinese or to the Indians. You schedule a meeting over the phone and meet them directly in their homes,” said Kofi, who claims to buy and resell 15 kg of gold per year — the equivalent of 1.66 million euros in value.

Since April 30, 2025, however, foreigners no longer have the right to buy or sell gold on the local market, to prevent gold from disappearing without benefiting the state’s coffers. However, this new measure is easily circumventable.

“To keep up their business, if it’s a company buying the gold, they’ll put a Ghanaian in front, so as to keep operating,” explained Kodjo (not his real name), who owns a legal gold mine in the region and has worked in the sector for three decades. 

One example is the company Unique MM, which experienced a highly publicised police raid in late April. Indian traders had been hiding behind a Ghanaian frontman, according to authorities, and the gold purchased from artisanal mines in Kumasi was being illegally shipped to India. Unique MM did not respond to questions when contacted.

Indian citizens have also been involved in another gold‑trafficking case that made headlines in Ghana recently. This time, it was an Indian company, Rafmoh Gold Ltd, that the authorities caught in their nets. Suspected of having bought 100 kg of gold on the black market in two months, from a Ghanaian intermediary in Tarkwa, the company was severely punished. Its jewellery shop in Accra was immediately closed, and its directors and presumed associates were arrested or placed on a wanted list, with a hefty reward of GHC 1 million. The lawyers representing the company denied any wrongdoing but did not respond to our questions.

But these rare publicly exposed cases are unlikely to dry up artisanal gold production. Tons of that gold are exported completely legally by GoldBod, the new state authority that certifies the country’s gold, before export to counter trafficking — even if it means laundering gold from illegal mines. During a press conference on September 10, 2025, President Mahama himself said that whether the gold was from legal or illegal sources, Ghana should “get the benefit of it.”

It’s worth the risk: between January and August 2025 alone, nearly 67 tons of artisanal gold, representing more than 5 billion euros, were shipped. Compare this to 63 tons of gold, equivalent to nearly 4 billion euros, from industrial mines.

India is the sixth largest importer of this increasingly sought‑after metal. According to commercially available customs data that the team reviewed via Indian experts, no fewer than 13 tons of gold departed from Ghana for the subcontinent between late May and mid‑August 2025. Eight of those tons passed through GoldBod. On some days, such as June 3, 2025, more than 600 kg of gold landed in India. 

There was only one buyer for GoldBod: Sovereign Metals Limited, a company from India’s northwestern state of Gujarat, which purchased nearly 730 million euros worth of gold bars. It’s a reflection of the country’s immense thirst for gold, which is prized both as a financial investment and in the form of jewellery for weddings or traditional ceremonies. By permitting the export of illegally mined gold through GoldBod, the Ghanaian government enables traders like Sovereign Metals Limited to acquire the precious metal, which has been effectively laundered of its illicit origins.

Sovereign Metals Limited, which reported revenues of nearly 500 million euros in 2024, is part of a group of companies specialised in precious metals and offering refining, trading and jewellery manufacturing services. 

“These are groups that try to control as much of the supply chain as possible, from importation to the sale of jewellery,” explained Marc Ummel from SWISSAID, a Swiss NGO. “In general, they sell imported gold mainly on the Indian market in the form of jewellery, and a small portion internationally,” he continued, citing the United Arab Emirates as a popular destination.

At the helm of this bling empire is the Indian Lodhiya family, a dynasty in the sector. The current CEO of Sovereign Metals Limited represents the fourth generation to trade in gold and silver.

When asked about the precise origin and legality of the gold sent to India, GoldBod didn’t reply. Same silence from Sovereign Metals Limited, whose website claims “responsible sourcing and ethical business practices.”