The Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam · BBC & CBC

9. The exit strategy

July 14, 2024·36 min·3 clips

A former CIA operative turned private detective says the helicopter made an unscheduled stop and he believes a body was loaded onto the aircraft.

The episode begins with a warning, then lands on Simon Sembiring scrolling through social media and stopping at an invitation from someone using the name Michael Antonio de Guzman. It is a tiny detail with a nasty pull. Sembiring had been director general of the Indonesian mining department, was involved in Briex license negotiations with foreign mining companies, and had sat in several Briex meetings with Guzman. He brings out an old photograph. The host compares it with the LinkedIn profile, lingering on de Guzman's jaw and wide chin without forcing the answer. Then the story turns back to the helicopter. The question is not only whether the profile looks familiar. It is whether de Guzman's final journey still holds together. Richard Jacobson wanted answers, and the crew chief's memory seemed almost too neat. He said de Guzman wrote letters, put registered stamps on them, placed them in a carry-on bag, and took off a Rolex watch and gold necklace. That is a lot to remember. Oddly, the one thing missing is the moment everything depends on. In a small, fast-moving helicopter, the crew chief says he never saw de Guzman get up, open the door, or jump. Jacobson says the story fell apart there. The detail gathers around the decisive moment, then leaves that moment blank. His doubt keeps going. He is not sure de Guzman ever got onto that helicopter, since surveillance only placed him on a plane from Jakarta to Balikpapan. Another problem follows: Jacobson says the pilot was not the real pilot but an Indonesian Air Force officer, and someone had to steer him onto the private helicopter. The body adds its own unease. In triple canopy rainforest, Jacobson treats the quick discovery as almost miraculous. By the end, a profile, a face, a helicopter account, and a quickly found body sit together as reasons to question how settled the ending really is.

As heard by us

A fraud story that keeps its focus on the paper trail and the gaps around a disappearance.

The episode stays with the odd last stretch of the Bre-X story, following Michael de Guzman through the LinkedIn invitation and the helicopter flight that never quite makes sense.

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Why you'd press play

You want the paper trail behind Michael de Guzman and the $6 billion gold scam, told with a grave, methodical lens.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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