THE NEW YORK branch of British bank Standard Chartered, Liverpool FC’s main sponsor, acted as an intermediary in a financial transaction involving a Brazilian gold shipment seized by customs authorities over suspected irregularities in its declared origin, documents obtained by Repórter Brasil show.
The 15-kilogram shipment, valued at US$1.5 million, belonged to Coluna DTVM, a Brazilian securities distributor, and was bound for MD Overseas DMCC, a Dubai-based company that is part of India’s MD Overseas group. The Indian company is a member of the Responsible Jewellery Council, the world’s leading organization dedicated to setting standards and promoting responsible business practices in the jewellery and watchmaking sector.
Brazilian Federal Revenue inspectors said they found “strong inconsistencies” between the documentation submitted by Coluna and the findings of a technical examination carried out by the agency, prompting the seizure of the cargo at Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo in November 2025.
The Federal Revenue Service’s main suspicion centers on 10 kg of gold bought by Coluna from third parties, about 8 kg of which came from 18 miners, according to purchase invoices submitted by the company.
The documents listed the mineral’s origin as areas in Peixoto de Azevedo, an Amazonian municipality in northern Mato Grosso, where a cooperative obtained authorization for exploration through Artisanal Mining Permits or PLG, in the abbreviation in Portuguese. A PLG is a simplified authorization issued by Brazil’s National Mining Agency, intended for small-scale mining. It has less stringent socio-environmental criteria than the mining concession required under the Mining Code for large-scale operations.
According to the Federal Revenue Service, “the individualized analysis and cross-checking of data on each seller showed that they were not cooperative members or artisanal miners, but rather true mining entrepreneurs operating on an industrial scale in gold extraction.” They allegedly used the PLG only to issue invoices “with the purpose of ‘laundering’ the origin of gold extracted from unidentified areas,” states an agency inspection report obtained by Repórter Brasil. Experts interviewed by Repórter Brasil say the practice may also be used to evade requirements imposed on large-scale mining operations.
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