The Royal Canadian Mint is missing nearly $110,000 in gold in what’s believed to be another major employee-related theft.
Mint employees reported the gold was missing from the Mint’s Ottawa facility on Sussex Drive and notified the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Mint spokesperson Alison Crawford told CBC News last month. One Mint employee has since been fired since the gold went missing.
“At the conclusion of an internal investigation and administrative review, the Mint terminated the employment of one of its staff and asked the RCMP to investigate,” Crawford told CBC News, adding the gold has not been recovered.
PAST THEFT
In February 2017, a former Mint refinery operator was sentenced to 30 months in prison for stealing $165,000 worth of gold from the Crown corporation’s Ottawa facility.
The controversial inside job made international headlines when prosecutors claimed the accused—35-year-old Barrhaven resident Leston Lawrence—thwarted several layers of security by hiding gold pucks (worth about $6,800 each) inside his anal cavity. The court was told Lawrence brought small, circular chunks of gold, each weighing 210 grams, to Ottawa Gold Buyers in the Westgate Shopping Centre between November 2014 and March 2015.