Bribery and Corruption Complaint Filed Against Bavarian State Mint

A complaint has been filed by the Somalia Accountability & Transparency Organization (SATO-USA) headed by anti-corruption fighter Dr. Abdillahi Hashi Abib against the Bavarian State Mint and two other German companies with the German National Contact Point of the OECD.

The complaint alleges that since 2004, hundreds of millions of Euros worth of gold, silver, and other coins have been produced and marketed by the Bavarian State Mint and its partners as legal tender of the Republic of Somalia without proper authority. This includes the popular gold and silver Elephant and Leopard bullion coins.

According to the lawyer for SATO-USA, Dr. Jonathan Levy, the case may be one of the largest of its type and demonstrates that countries with weak civil institutions like Somalia are often are taken advantage of by supposedly “ethical” countries like Germany: “Dr. Abib has discovered that a German government mint has been producing vast quantities of gold, silver and metal coins under the name of Somalia.

The Somali government and its people have received nothing and there is no record at the Central Bank of the coinage program.

While Somalia is often faulted for corruption, it seems that Germany is not immune from profiting at the expense of one of the poorest nations in Africa.”