Colombia’s national tax office, DIAN, called for an investigation on Wednesday into the claim that 23 tons of gold have gone missing.
DIAN Director Juan Ricardo Ortega said the situation was very serious and therefore called for a thorough investigation of what may be happening with gold exports in the country.
The director said while “there are very honest and serious people who are performing legal exportations,” the export sector was not immune to people telling lies. Goods supposedly exported may have been kept for personal gain.
The investigation was sparked by a complaint from Senator Jorge Enrique Robledo, who said that $986 million worth of gold had been unaccounted for between 2009 and 2011.
According to Robledo, the 23 tons of gold were registered in the production figures for that period but did not appear in the export figures.