Gold market breaches 'covered up'

Feb 26, 2014, 02:11 AM

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When you buy gold or products with gold in them like mobile phones, how sure can you be that your money doesn't end up funding armed groups involved in atrocities like killing civilians or mass rape?

Not very is the short answer - especially if the gold you bought went through Dubai - which has a fifth of the world's trade in physical gold through ITS gold refineries.

A former partner of Ernst & Young has told the BBC that he audited the biggest refiner in Dubai and found clear breaches of international rules designed to stop the trade in "conflict gold".

But rule changes by Dubai's regulator meant that key findings could be covered up and never published.

When his firm Ernst & Young turned a blind eye to that, he decided to blow the whistle and resign:

The BBC's Andy Verity's been investigating.