Every year, over $30 billion in illicit gold moves across borders—financing war, propping up authoritarian regimes, and empowering transnational criminal networks.

In a hard-hitting new op-ed in Foreign Affairs, The Sentry’s Sasha Lezhnev and John Prendergast expose how the illicit gold trade is fueling devastating wars in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ukraine.

In “The Deadly Global Gold Rush,” John and Sasha detail how this illicit trade flows through global markets—especially via the United Arab Emirates, where smuggled gold is refined, laundered, and sold with little oversight. The authors call for urgent action: a public-private partnership on illicit gold to improve transparency and monitoring of trading centers; a US illicit gold task force to investigate and sanction gold trafficking networks and exchange information with industry; and specific reforms on the UAE and other global gold trading centers.

For years, we’ve documented how resource trafficking enables war profiteers, kleptocrats, and transnational criminal networks to profit from conflict and human suffering. But as gold prices surge to record highs, the threat has accelerated, and the global response must catch up.

Thank you for your continued support as we track and expose the dirty money that funds war and repression around the world.

With appreciation,
Justyna Gudzowska
Executive Director, The Sentry