London has stood at the heart of the world’s gold trade for centuries and remains one of its most important bullion centres. Holding around 20 percent of global financial gold. But today’s subject matter actually carries more of a personal significance for me. My grandfather was a gold miner in Guyana. It’s what Guyanese people called a “pork-knocker”. Named for the pickled pork they would eat after a long day’s mini...
London has stood at the heart of the world’s gold trade for centuries and remains one of its most important bullion centres. Holding around 20 percent of global financial gold. But today’s subject matter actually carries more of a personal significance for me. My grandfather was a gold miner in Guyana. It’s what Guyanese people called a “pork-knocker”. Named for the pickled pork they would eat after a long day’s mining. And like prospectors before him, he travelled in search of gold, opportunity and a better life. His story speaks to both the hope and hazard of gold. The hope of work, of course of discovery – I have to say there weren’t many discoveries! – and prosperity, but also the hazard of a precious resource that, if exploited can scar landscapes, endanger lives and enrich the wrong people. And while illicit gold rarely captures headlines in the way other crimes of course do its consequences are real in the lives of our citizens and they are far-reaching. So we are here in common purpose: to ensure that gold is sourced, is traded and used responsibly. To ensure sustainability, higher standards and integrity. But above all, to ensure that it is trust that defines the global gold market, and not any sense of criminality. That matters enormously here in the United Kingdom. As home to one of the world’s leading bullion markets London has both an interest and a responsibility in maintaining the very highest of standards. The LBMA, the World Gold Council, civil society and others here in this room have shown genuine leadership in strengthening responsible sourcing, in improving due diligence and building confidence in global markets. And the London Good Delivery system remains a globally recognised benchmark for trust, and quality. So I think we are making real progress. But of course there is more to do. This is not simply a British challenge. Nor even an industry challenge. It is a global challenge, worth at least £90 billion every year. And a challenge of that scale demands a response of equal ambition. For criminals, the golden glimmer of opportunity is the means of moving and concealing illicit wealth. Easily transportable, gold can fit a fortune into the palm of unscrupulous hands. Unlike cash, it does not need a bank account, a password or an internet connection. It is harder to trace, once it flows into formal supply chains and so uniquely attractive to criminals the world over. The consequences are felt everywhere, in different ways. First, in conflict. In Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine and the war in Sudan, both bankrolled by dirty gold. Second, at the sharpest end, in the poorest nations children exposed to dangerous working conditions, rivers poisoned by mercury, citizens deprived of schools, hospitals and public services as resources that should be creating opportunity. Instead line the pockets of kleptocrats and their cronies. And third, in organised crime, I say in my capacity as Secretary of State for Justice. It is so easy to think of these harms as distant problems, confined to remote mines, far away. They are not. The same criminal networks that profit from illicit gold are the gangs involved in drug trafficking, people smuggling, cybercrime and fraud. What begins thousands of miles away has direct consequences on the streets of British towns and cities and other towns and cities around the world. And that is the human cost of illicit gold. So tackling it is not just a matter of market integrity. It is a matter of public safety and it is a critical front in the wider fight against illicit finance. Gold is also being abused as a means of conducting criminal transactions and we are seeing an increasing relationship between gold and crypto to further hide illegal activity. Ancient and modern forms of finance being pressed into service to fund illegal wars, circumvent sanctions or launder proceeds of crime. And as gold prices soar even higher, a 140 per cent rise since January 2023 and the world around us is ever-more turbulent the rewards for criminal gangs become even greater and so does their determination to exploit this trade. And that is why our response must be even stronger. The good news is that we are not starting from scratch here. As I mentioned earlier – we are seeing progress, much of it represented here in this room. And the UK Government is committed to building on that progress. Last year, my ministerial colleague at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Stephen Doughty announced a new, dedicated Public-Private Partnership on illicit gold flows with a domestic UK focus through the Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce. Chaired by the Foreign Office and the industry, it brings together government, law enforcement, civil society, the UK gold industry and the financial sector to share intelligence, identify threats and close the gaps that criminals seek to exploit. Its early success has reinforced the fact that criminal networks do not operate in silos. So neither can we. Just as criminals collaborate across borders, jurisdictions and markets, those who seek to stop them must collaborate even more effectively. Together, we must ensure there is no safe haven for illegally produced gold. No route to market for gold smuggled across borders and no opportunity for criminal networks to profit from exploitation and corruption. Having seen first-hand, when I was Foreign Secretary, the effort refineries put into diligence and scrutiny I am convinced that lasting progress depends on partnership across the entire supply chain. That is why I’m pleased my colleagues at the FCDO are pursuing a new international public-private partnership on illicit gold flows. This will bring together governments, industry and civil society to tackle illicit gold across the global supply chain and together, we can strengthen responsible sourcing, improve information sharing, support the implementation of OECD guidance, and FATF standards and disrupt the criminal networks that profit from illicit gold trade. No business can solve it alone. No government can solve this alone. And no country can solve it alone. So our response must be international, must be coordinated, and must be sustained – principles at the heart of the UK’s Illicit Finance Summit which my friend the Foreign Secretary will host this December. The purpose is clear: to expose the scale of illicit finance, to strengthen transparency, enforcement and international standards and to build the partnerships needed to turn shared commitments into collective action. But while we strengthen our response to illicit gold flows, we must also address the harms they cause at source. From mercury-polluted rivers and deforestation, to the exploitation of communities and Indigenous Peoples who depend on these environments. That is why, alongside today’s focus on international supply chains, and the Illicit Finance Summit’s focus on illicit flows London Climate Action Week will highlight how the UK is working internationally to address the environmental, social and climate damage wrought by the global trade in dirty gold. The challenge is clearly complex, but the direction is clear. We must make it harder for criminals to hide wealth. Harder for corrupt actors to exploit global markets and harder for organised crime to profit from human suffering. Because, ultimately, that is what the fight against illicit gold is about. It is about whether valuable resources benefit communities, or criminal networks. Whether wealth serves citizens, or corrupt elites and whether organised crime continues to grow stronger. Or whether, together, we cut off the golden oxygen supply that sustains it. Gold should be a source of prosperity, not exploitation. A source of opportunity, not criminality and ensuring that that remains true is a responsibility that belongs to all of us.
Speech Brief