Ethiopia Officials Still Investigating Fake Gold In National Bank's Vaults

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (AHN) - The mystery of gold gilded steel bars and Ethiopia's national bank is still unraveling. Bank officials were ordered by parliament's budget and finance committee to inspect all the gold in the national bank's vaults after two separate deposits of gold bars were found to be fake.

The initial problem was uncovered when the bank sent a consignment of 300 kilograms, 10,582.1886 ounces of presumably 999.9 percent pure gold to South Africa. That nation tested them and found them to be gold gilded steel counterfeits.

An investigation followed along with the arrests of some banking officials, the supplier the bank purchased the bars from, associates of the supplier and chemists from the Geological Survey of Ethiopia who assay gold bars and certify them genuine.

By March 3, 19 people had been arrested in the scheme that sold gilded gold to the nation's central bank, according to All Africa news.

However, after the bank was ordered to examine all its bars, the discovery was made that a 36-kilogram gold bar in the bank's vault purchased five years ago was also fake. Setting off an investigation as to whether the bars were fake when they were bought or had somehow been switched for real gold bars inside the bank's vaults.

In the meantime, gold prices continue to soar. The price of gold reached a record high of $1,000 per ounce on Thursday, before falling back to $994.05 per ounce on the London Bullion Market. Six months ago gold was trading at about $710 an ounce. The steadily rising global gold prices are coming in response to inflationary pressure on oil prices and uncertainty over the U.S. economy, experts say.

The National Bank of Ethiopia was established by proclamation in 1963. It began operating with $10 million in capital, according to a statement on the bank's website.