{"id":82917,"date":"2026-04-14T14:40:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T17:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redept.com.br\/blogosfera\/italy-pressed-over-signs-of-illegal-gold-imports-from-brazil\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T14:40:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T17:40:49","slug":"italy-pressed-over-signs-of-illegal-gold-imports-from-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redept.com.br\/blogosfera\/italy-pressed-over-signs-of-illegal-gold-imports-from-brazil\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy pressed over signs of illegal gold imports from Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>ITALIAN LAWMAKERS<\/strong> have asked Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni\u2019s government to explain what measures the country has taken to combat imports of gold from Brazil that show signs of illegality. The request cites reports published by Rep\u00f3rter Brasil on how Italian refineries purchased gold from companies investigated for links to illegal mining operations in the Amazon.<\/p>\n<p>The Parliamentary Question \u2013 the technical term for this type of request \u2013 was submitted on March 31 by MP Angelo Bonelli, of the Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra (Greens and Left Alliance) coalition. It was also signed by seven other lawmakers from the coalition and addressed to the ministers of the Interior, Economy and Finance, Environment and Energy Security, and Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n<p>The lawmakers want to know whether Italy\u2019s current traceability and verification tools are adequate to address the risk of gold imports linked to environmental crimes, document forgery, and violations of Indigenous peoples\u2019 rights. The parliamentary question also asks what initiatives the government intends to take, including through diplomatic channels, to prevent Italy from becoming a destination for gold illegally extracted from the Amazon.<\/p>\n<h2>Investigated suppliers<\/h2>\n<p>In June 2025, a report showed that the Italian refinery Italpreziosi had purchased the mineral from an importer under investigation in a scheme involving illegal gold extraction in Itaituba, in southwestern Par\u00e1 state. According to police investigations, the criminal scheme involved Brazilian companies issuing false invoices \u2014 including in the names of deceased individuals \u2014 to conceal the true origin of the gold. Investigators say part of the product was extracted from illegal mining sites in the Munduruku Indigenous Territory.<\/p>\n<div data-elementor-type=\"section\" data-elementor-id=\"77670\" data-elementor-post-type=\"elementor_library\">\n<div data-id=\"17a659f\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\" data-settings='{\"background_background\":\"classic\"}'>\n<div>\n<div data-id=\"386385d\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n<div>\n<h2>ASSINE NOSSA NEWSLETTER<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div data-id=\"6546917\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"html.default\">\n<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div data-id=\"8c2e333\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-settings='{\"button_width\":\"20\",\"step_next_label\":\"Next\",\"step_previous_label\":\"Previous\",\"button_width_mobile\":\"20\",\"step_type\":\"number_text\",\"step_icon_shape\":\"circle\"}' data-widget_type=\"form.default\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<label for=\"form-field-email\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEmail\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/label><\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<button type=\"submit\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<i aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>Submit<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/button>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In May 2024, Rep\u00f3rter Brasil had already shown that a shipment of 5 kilograms of gold powder mixed into 15 tonnes of charcoal had been purchased by another Italian refinery, Safimet, which specializes in precious metals refining. After finding the undeclared gold in the cargo, Brazil\u2019s Federal Revenue Service at the Port of Santos blocked the export to Italy. Although the gold accounted for only 0.03% of the shipment\u2019s total volume, it could have yielded BRL 1.9 million \u2013 nearly three times the value of the charcoal declared on the invoice.<\/p>\n<figure><img fetchpriority=\"high\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\"src=\"https:\/\/redept.com.br\/blogosfera\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/vista_garimpo_itaituba_fernando_martinho-1-1536x1023-1.jpg\" alt=\"Aerial view of a gold mining area in the municipality of Itaituba, in southwestern Par\u00e1, in the Brazilian Amazon (Photo: Fernando Martinho\/Rep\u00f3rter Brasil)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/reporterbrasil.org.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/vista_garimpo_itaituba_fernando_martinho-1-1536x1023-1-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/reporterbrasil.org.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/vista_garimpo_itaituba_fernando_martinho-1-1536x1023-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/reporterbrasil.org.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/vista_garimpo_itaituba_fernando_martinho-1-1536x1023-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/redept.com.br\/blogosfera\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/vista_garimpo_itaituba_fernando_martinho-1-1536x1023-1.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><figcaption>Aerial view of a gold mining area in the municipality of Itaituba, in southwestern Par\u00e1, in the Brazilian Amazon (Photo: Fernando Martinho\/Rep\u00f3rter Brasil)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Three years earlier, Chimet, a major Italian precious metals refinery based in Arezzo, Tuscany, was identified in police investigations as a buyer of gold illegally extracted from the Kayap\u00f3 Indigenous Territory in southern Par\u00e1. The scheme was uncovered in Operation Terra Desolata, carried out by Brazil\u2019s Federal Police. Rep\u00f3rter Brasil showed that Chimet appeared in the supplier network of companies such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft.<\/p>\n<p>All three companies were contacted by Rep\u00f3rter Brasil at the time the reports were published. Italpreziosi said it had found no indication of illegality in the gold purchased from the importer under investigation. Safimet said it had made a single purchase from the Brazilian company targeted by customs authorities at the Port of Santos and that it cancelled the deal after the material was seized by the Federal Revenue Service. Chimet, in turn, said that its gold purchases are accompanied by documentation certifying the metal\u2019s lawful origin, but acknowledged \u201cthe risk that negative impacts may be associated with the trade and export of minerals from high-risk areas.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Federal prosecutors opened an investigation<\/h2>\n<p>In December 2025, Brazil\u2019s Federal Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office in Amazonas state (MPF) opened an inquiry to investigate the actions of the Brazilian state, the National Mining Agency (ANM), and other public bodies and entities in combating the irregular export of gold.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian refineries are not targets of the investigation. Still, the accumulation of allegations led prosecutors to seek explanations in order to understand what countries such as Italy and Switzerland are doing to prevent gold illegally extracted from the Amazon from entering their territories.<\/p>\n<p>In March this year, the MPF sent a request for clarification to the Italian embassy in Bras\u00edlia. The same request was also sent to the embassies of Switzerland, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. In the parliamentary question, lawmakers ask whether the Italian government is aware of that request.<\/p>\n<h2>Response may take time \u2013 or never come<\/h2>\n<p>Ministers have 20 days to respond to the Parliamentary Question. But that does not always happen. In some cases, parliamentary questions remain unanswered for years. That is what happened when the same issue first reached the Italian parliament, in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>In September 2021, when Operation Terra Desolata became public and revealed the scheme linking clandestine Amazon miners to Chimet, the scandal reached Italy not only through the press, but also through official channels.<\/p>\n<p>In February 2022, MP Devis Dori \u2013 who also signed this year\u2019s parliamentary question \u2013 and three other lawmakers, all from the Greens and Left Alliance coalition, submitted a parliamentary question addressed to the same ministries. At the time, they wanted to know whether the government was aware of the facts revealed by the operation and what initiatives it intended to adopt to combat the illegal trade in precious metals.<\/p>\n<p>Four years later, that parliamentary question still has not been answered. Contacted by the reporter, Dori said he had never received any reply from the government. He noted that the prime minister at the time, Mario Draghi, remained in office for only five months.<\/p>\n<p>His colleague Cristian Romaniello, who signed the 2022 parliamentary question, also never received a response. \u201cIt was the Draghi government, but that does not mean the question could not have been answered by the governments that followed,\u201d the lawmaker said.<\/p>\n<h2>Complaint against Chimet was shelved<\/h2>\n<p>At the same time, MP Angelo Bonelli \u2013\u00a0 the same lawmaker now leading this year\u2019s Parliamentary Question \u2013 formally filed a complaint in February 2022 with the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office in Arezzo, where Chimet is based. The complaint requested the opening of an investigation to determine whether the accusations raised by Brazil\u2019s Federal Police had grounds under Italian law.<\/p>\n<p>In response to Rep\u00f3rter Brasil, the Arezzo prosecutor\u2019s office said the complaint had been registered \u201cas fatti non costituenti reato\u201d (\u201cfacts not constituting a crime\u201d) and shelved in May 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Bonelli himself was unaware that the complaint had been shelved. When informed by <strong>Rep\u00f3rter Brasil<\/strong>, he said that the main obstacle to investigating the purchase of illegal gold in Italy lies in traceability. According to him, when gold enters the country accompanied by formal Brazilian documentation, challenging its origin becomes difficult.\u201cIf those responsible are not identified, the cycle continues,\u201d he said. In the lawmaker\u2019s view, Europe is still falling short by failing to impose stricter controls on raw materials coming from areas marked by exploitation and deforestation.<\/p>\n<div data-elementor-type=\"container\" data-elementor-id=\"75228\" data-elementor-post-type=\"elementor_library\">\n<div data-id=\"5e8db1e6\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n<div>\n<div data-id=\"36eb6c91\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n<div>\n<div data-id=\"6f52f515\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n<div data-id=\"65d9f401\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"divider.default\">\n<div>\n<div>\n\t\t\t<span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div data-id=\"134a1245\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n<div>\n<div data-id=\"10fe55fe\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n<div>\n<p>Leia tamb\u00e9m<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div data-id=\"3c9495ae\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-settings='{\"template_id\":\"75221\",\"columns\":1,\"row_gap\":{\"unit\":\"px\",\"size\":10,\"sizes\":[]},\"_skin\":\"post\",\"columns_tablet\":\"2\",\"columns_mobile\":\"1\",\"edit_handle_selector\":\"[data-elementor-type=\"loop-item\"]\",\"row_gap_tablet\":{\"unit\":\"px\",\"size\":\"\",\"sizes\":[]},\"row_gap_mobile\":{\"unit\":\"px\",\"size\":\"\",\"sizes\":[]}}' data-widget_type=\"loop-grid.post\">\n<div>\n<div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The post Italy pressed over signs of illegal gold imports from Brazil appeared first on Rep\u00f3rter Brasil.<\/p>\n<!-- Begin Yuzo --><div class='yuzo_related_post style-1'  data-version='5.12.89'><!-- without result --><div class='yuzo_clearfixed yuzo__title yuzo__title'><h3>Related Post<\/h3><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t  <div class=\"relatedthumb \" style=\"width:125px;float:left;overflow:hidden;\">  \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t  <a  href=\"https:\/\/redept.com.br\/blogosfera\/tce-acolhe-denuncia-sobre-supostas-irregularidades-na-concessao-do-parque-da-gameleira-em-bh\/\"  >\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t  <div class=\"yuzo-img-wrap \" style=\"width: 125px;height:90px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"yuzo-img\" style=\"background:url('https:\/\/redept.org\/blogosfera\/wp-content\/plugins\/yuzo-related-post\/assets\/images\/default.png') 50% 50% no-repeat;width: 125px;height:90px;margin-bottom: 5px;background-size: cover; 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