A 64-year-old Canadian consultant was led into the dock at Buganda Road Chief Magistrate's Court in Kampala last week, accused of taking $1.5 million from a foreign investor for gold that never existed. He is not an outlier. He is the latest name in a trade that has quietly become one of Uganda's most damaging exports: the sale of gold that is never delivered, by companies that never refine anything, to investors who never see the country again.
Michel Faille, who had been living at a hotel in Nsambya, was remanded to Luzira Prison until 12 August by Chief Magistrate Ritah Neumbe Kidasa. Prosecutors allege that between July and October 2025, at Acacia Mall in Kamwokya, he and others still at large get about $1.5 million, roughly Shs5.6 billion, from Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur on a promise to ship 16 tonnes of gold to Dubai. He was separately found in Kololo with 740 kilograms of nuggets suspected to be gold and no dealer's licence. He denied both charges. The state asked for more time to complete its inquiries.
The court appearance and the wider investigation were first reported in detail by the UG Standard: Inside Uganda's gold-fraud machine: the shell refineries, security fronts and Kampala fixers - the primary source referenced in this report.
Twenty companies, one pattern
The Police Mineral Protection Unit is investigating more than 20 companies in the gold trade over fraud, investor scamming and illegal mineral dealings. Several are already before the courts and their trading licences are under review. Police spokesperson Rusoke Kituuma and the Energy Ministry's geology and mining commissioner, Agnes Alaba, have confirmed that at least 20 private firms are named in a joint police and ministry report covering the scamming of investors from Asia, North America and Europe.
The pattern is consistent enough to be described as a business model. A buyer is introduced to a well-spoken facilitator. A small test buy, often around 10 kilograms, is completed successfully to build confidence. A larger order follows, with payment routed through a company that has a smart office, a website and no processing capacity whatsoever. Then the gold does not move, the phones stop working, and the company name turns out to belong to a freight agent, a logistics firm or, remarkably often, a private security company.
The fronts are not refineries. They are security firms, cargo agents and one-room offices with a scale on the desk. The paperwork is the product.
Security companies as the new shell
One of the most striking findings in the police dragnet is how many of the accused entities are registered as security or logistics providers rather than mineral processors. A former manager of a Kampala security firm was remanded over a scheme that cost Dubai-based investors about $3.5 million, roughly Shs13 billion, after he presented himself as a connected facilitator and steered the buyers towards supposed suppliers. He was later re-arrested by the State House Anti-Corruption Unit on his way into a hearing and charged, with a co-accused, over forged medical and marriage certificates used to secure bail.
Other cases in the same file involve firms flagged for closure in the joint police and ministry report. A separate list compiled earlier by the african centre for energy and mineral policy naming refineries and trading houses implicated in fraudulent dealings. LivingWellUganda is not republishing the full company list while charges remain untested in court, but the register of accused entities is public in the police report and in the charge sheets filed at Buganda Road.
