Sunday, January 16, 2011

Deposed Tunisian President Fled with 1.5 Tons of Gold

or so says Tyler at Zero Hedge, citing Le Monde (with Google translation). It seems it was the wife of the president who had the wits about her to grab 22% of Tunisia's gold reserve and run:

The family of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia would have fled with 1.5 tons of gold. It is an assumption of the French secret services, who try to understand how the day ended on Friday 14 January, which saw the departure of President and his family and the downfall of his regime.

According to information gathered in Tunis, Leila Trabelsi , the president's wife allegedly went to the Bank of Tunisia to look for gold bars. The governor refused. M me Ben Ali had called her husband, who had also initially refused, then surrendered. She then flew to Dubai, according to French news before leaving for Jeddah. "It seems that the wife of Ben Ali is a party with gold" , said a senior French official. "1.5 tonnes gold, that makes 45 million euros" , translated source.


As of December 2010, Tunisia had 6.8 tonnes of gold as the reserve. So the president and his wife simply took 22% of the nation's gold reserve and fled.

Physical gold and silver seem to be disappearing fast from the market, even without the Tunisian president's wife. Bullionvault.com has run out of silver in Germany.

But don't worry, people, it's just another "bubble", as this expert at this august institution (item No.4) assures us.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Trying to do the math: 1.5 tons x 2000 lbs/ton x 12 troy oz./troy lb x $1365 USD/troy oz. x .74748 EUR/USD = 36.7 EUR.

Why the discrepancy in the value estimate of the gold?

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

1.5 tons (assuming it's short tons) equals 3000lb. There are 43750 troy oz in 3000lb.

43750 troy oz x $1365 x 0.74748 EUR/USD = 44.6 million Euro.

Close enough. But isn't gold measured in metric tonnes? 1.5 metric tonnes of gold is worth 49 million Euro.

Post a Comment