Dubai Firm Sues Gambian Gold Brokers and Refinery Over Alleged US$1.1 Million Fraud

Eight Defendants Face Allegations of Fraudulent Misrepresentation, False Assay Certificates, and Conspiracy to Defraud; Court Adjourns Matter to June 29 Following Service Issues

A Dubai-based precious minerals trading company has commenced a civil fraud action in the High Court before Justice Coker, alleging that eight defendants, including a Gambian gold export brokerage company, its directors, a Guinean gold seller, a local refinery, and several related individuals, conspired to defraud it of more than US$1.1 million through an elaborate scheme involving counterfeit gold bars and allegedly fraudulent assay certificates.

The plaintiffs in the matter are Arabia Gulf Diamonds DMCC, a company incorporated under the free-zone laws of the United Arab Emirates, and its local partner, Safaro Trading Company Limited.

The defendants are B & M Gold & Silver Brokerage Shipping and Services Limited as the 1st Defendant; Bubacarr Bah, a director and shareholder of the company, as the 2nd Defendant; Mansa Bah, also a director and shareholder, as the 3rd Defendant; Doula Mane, a Guinean national and the alleged gold seller, as the 4th Defendant; Abdullahi Jallow as the 5th Defendant; Uzokwe Ifeanyi, also known as Mustafa Bah, as the 6th Defendant; KK Gold Refinery Company Ltd of Bijilo as the 7th Defendant; and Kabineh Kabba, the principal shareholder of KK Gold Refinery, as the 8th Defendant.

The plaintiffs are represented by Counsel Loubna Farage and Counsel Abdul Aziz Bensouda. The Writ of Summons, Statement of Claim, and three sworn witness affidavits were filed and received by the court on 18 May 2026.

According to the Statement of Claim and supporting affidavits, Arabia Gulf Diamonds travelled to The Gambia in or around March and April 2026 with the intention of purchasing and exporting gold to Dubai. The company operated through its local intermediary, Safaro Trading Company Limited.

The plaintiffs state that, through an introduction by one Amadou Tijan Bah, they were connected to Doula Mane, a Guinean national who represented that he owned approximately 200 kilograms of gold available for export.

In his witness statement, Leonid Karpukhin, the authorised representative of Arabia Gulf Diamonds and a Luxembourg national, states that Mane represented himself as the lawful owner of the gold and claimed that the gold originated from the Republic of Guinea. According to Karpukhin, Mane further represented that he possessed all documents necessary for lawful export, including a certificate of ownership, a Guinean certificate of origin, a certificate of non-criminality, and export clearance documentation.

Karpukhin further states that Mane informed the plaintiffs that he had previously conducted successful gold export transactions through B & M Gold & Silver Brokerage Shipping and Services Limited, which he described as a trusted export agent. The plaintiffs contend that B & M Gold was presented as a duly licensed and competent Gambian company operating under a licence issued by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy on 4 August 2025.

The parties subsequently entered into a Sale and Purchase Agreement dated 1 April 2026. Under the agreement, the plaintiffs agreed to finance export logistics, taxes, insurance, documentation, and other related expenses. The gold was to be independently verified upon arrival in Dubai and purchased at a price of US$85,000 per kilogram.

Before making any payments, the plaintiffs requested that a sample quantity of 15 kilograms of gold be tested by an independent refinery.

According to the pleadings, Mane provided 15 gold bars, which were transported to KK Gold Refinery Company Ltd in Bijilo. There, the bars were allegedly smelted, weighed, and subjected to XRF testing in the presence of Karpukhin, representatives of Safaro Trading, and Mane himself.

The plaintiffs allege that Kabineh Kabba, whom they describe as the Chief Executive Officer of KK Gold Refinery, personally supervised the testing process and subsequently issued assay certificates identified as Certificate of Control of Mining Products No. 0009, dated 7 April 2026.

The certificates reportedly indicated that the gold dore bars possessed a purity level ranging from approximately 96% to 97%, with a carat value of approximately 23 carats.

Court documents indicate that the plaintiffs paid KK Gold Refinery US$2,250 for the testing services.

Relying upon the assay results and the various representations allegedly made by the defendants, Safaro Trading, acting as nominee remitter on behalf of Arabia Gulf Diamonds, paid B & M Gold the sum of US$800,000 in cash in two instalments of US$600,000 and US$200,000 on or about 7 April 2026.

Receipts bearing Invoice Numbers 00018 and 00019 were issued in the name of Doula Mane after B & M Gold allegedly stated that it was acting on his behalf.

The plaintiffs contend that discrepancies emerged shortly thereafter.

According to the Statement of Claim, B & M Gold subsequently provided customs declarations and payment receipts dated 9 April 2026. However, upon reviewing the documents, Counsel Abdul Aziz Bensouda allegedly discovered that only approximately GMD4 million had been paid in customs duties, substantially less than the US$460,000 allegedly represented in the pro forma invoice as customs and tax-related charges.

The plaintiffs state that no satisfactory explanation was provided for the discrepancy.

The claim further alleges that when the plaintiffs sought to establish a date for exporting the gold, B & M Gold informed them that the export process could not proceed without an additional document described as an “inflow document” from the Republic of Guinea.

According to the plaintiffs, they were informed that obtaining the document would require a further payment of US$600,000.

The 5th Defendant, Abdullahi Jallow, allegedly represented that he possessed the necessary contacts to secure the required documentation from the Central Bank of Guinea within two days.

Unwilling to pay the full amount requested, the plaintiffs agreed to provide US$300,000, with any additional payment contingent upon production of the document and the successful export of the gold.

Court documents state that the payment was made in cash by Safaro Trading on 16 April 2026 to Doula Mane, and that a supplementary receipt was executed on the same date.

The plaintiffs allege that the promised inflow document was never produced.

According to the pleadings, communications with the 4th and 5th Defendants subsequently became sporadic and evasive before ceasing altogether.

The plaintiffs further state that Mane later travelled to Sierra Leone with the remaining approximately 185 kilograms of gold in the hope that exportation from that jurisdiction would be easier to facilitate. However, they allege that no export transaction ever materialised and that all communication from Mane, Jallow, and Mansa Bah ceased completely.

As a result of these developments, Counsel Bensouda arranged for the safe containing the 15 kilograms of tested gold, which had been stored at his offices in Fajara pending export, to be forcibly opened.

According to the plaintiffs, the key to the safe had remained exclusively in the possession of Doula Mane, who by that stage was allegedly unreachable and outside the jurisdiction.

The opening of the safe was conducted in the presence of a welder and a Notary Public, Nyanamang S.J. Wally.

In her sworn affidavit, Wally states that five tamper-proof bags bearing serial numbers H00103514 through H00103518 were recovered from the safe. She further states that the bags remained fully sealed and intact and showed no signs of tampering.

Each bag reportedly contained three bars of the purported gold.

According to Wally, the 15 bars were weighed, and each measured approximately one kilogram, consistent with the weight reflected in the assay certificates issued by KK Gold Refinery.

The bars were then individually subjected to XRF testing.

The results, according to the plaintiffs, were dramatically different from those reflected in the refinery’s earlier assay reports.

Court documents state that the tests revealed gold purity levels ranging from approximately 1% to 2.3%, directly contradicting the refinery’s earlier findings of more than 96% purity and approximately 23 carats.

In her affidavit, Wally states that the results led her to conclude that the bars were not genuine gold.

The plaintiffs allege that Kabineh Kabba deliberately calibrated or manipulated the XRF testing equipment at KK Gold Refinery to generate artificially inflated purity readings.

They further allege that, during the original testing process, Kabba prevented independent verification by prohibiting the plaintiffs’ representatives from using their own XRF machine, directing that the refinery compound be closed to outside access, requiring the plaintiffs’ representatives to remain upstairs while the smelting process took place downstairs, and arranging for the bars to be presented only after the smelting process had concluded.

According to the plaintiffs, these measures were intended to conceal the true composition and purity of the bars.

The plaintiffs seek judgment jointly and severally against all eight defendants.

Among the reliefs sought are declarations that the defendants fraudulently procured and facilitated the transaction; that representations concerning ownership, authority, exportability, documentation, quality, purity, and authenticity of the gold were false; and that the assay certificates issued by the 7th and 8th Defendants were fraudulent, irregular, void, and of no legal effect.

The plaintiffs also seek an order rescinding the Sale and Purchase Agreement and all related documents.

In addition, they seek repayment of US$1.1 million on the basis of total failure of consideration.

Special damages amounting to US$312,786 are also claimed, including US$285,582 for a privately chartered aircraft, US$14,183 for flights undertaken by company representatives, US$12,501 for hotel accommodation, and other related expenses.

The plaintiffs further seek general damages for fraud, deceit, fraudulent misrepresentation, and conspiracy to defraud, together with interest at the commercial rate of 18 percent per annum from 5 April 2026 until final judgment.

The suit also seeks orders lifting the corporate veil of both B & M Gold and KK Gold Refinery so as to hold their directors and shareholders personally liable for any judgment entered against the companies.

The plaintiffs additionally seek restitution and disgorgement of all profits, commissions, and proceeds allegedly obtained by the defendants through the transaction.

When the matter came before the High Court on Thursday, 12 June 2026, Counsel Loubna Farage and Counsel Abdul Aziz Bensouda appeared for the plaintiffs.

Counsel I. Drammeh and S.M. Tambedou appeared for the 3rd Defendant; Counsel C. Mane, B.S. Conteh, Counsel Njie, and S. Sonko appeared for the 4th through 8th Defendants; while Counsel Darboe appeared for the 1st and 2nd Defendants.

During proceedings, Counsel C. Mane informed the court of a motion filed on behalf of the 7th and 8th Defendants.

Justice Coker inquired whether the motion had been served on all parties.

Counsel Drammeh informed the court that the 3rd Defendant had not been served. Counsel Darboe likewise informed the court that the 1st and 2nd Defendants had not been served and further advised the court that the 2nd Defendant had also filed a separate motion.

Justice Coker ruled that the court could not proceed in the absence of proper service.

“I don’t think we can make progress in the absence of service to the parties involved,” the judge stated.

The matter was subsequently adjourned to 29 June 2026 for counsel to address the court after service of the outstanding motions on all parties.

According to the pleadings, B & M Gold & Silver Brokerage Shipping and Services Limited is incorporated in The Gambia under Company No. 2021/C16116 and TIN 2100348062, with its principal office situated on Coastal Road, opposite Green House, Sinchu Sorrie, West Coast Region. The company was incorporated on or about 6 August 2021 and is registered to conduct business in geological ventures, gold mining, minerals, consultancy services, and import and export activities.

KK Gold Refinery Company Ltd, based in Bijilo, is described in the court filings as a refinery and assayer. The plaintiffs allege that Kabineh Kabba exercised control and domination over the company and utilised its corporate structure as a vehicle for issuing false assay documentation.

All allegations contained in the Statement of Claim and supporting affidavits remain allegations only. They have not yet been tested before the court and are disputed by the defendants. The matter remains pending before the High Court.