Operatives of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) on Friday arrested Mr Sam Buchanan and two others whose names we could not readily establish over allegations of conning foreigners in gold deals.

Security sources familiar with the raid told Sunday Monitor that Mr Buchanan and group were arrested on allegations of defrauding a businessman, a non-Ugandan, of $500,000 (about1.8b).

The sources added that Mr Buchanan faces four other accusations of the same nature, involving millions of dollars.

Mr Buchanan is, among other things, the chairman of Great Stickers International, which is into promoting professional boxing. He is also connected to a company called FookMoon Agency Ltd. He is a renowned socialite in the city, known to many for his generosity.

Mr Buchanan, security sources say, was picked up from Bunga in Kampala, while the others were arrested from different places. He was then led to his home, a spacious mansion in Bukasa near Muyenga, Kampala, where the arresting officers conducted a search.

A source who participated in the operation said they recovered from Mr Buchanan’s house 100 bars of what they suspect to be fake gold, weighing scales for gold and gold testing machines.
Brig Richard Karemire, the army spokesperson, however, said he was not aware of the operation.

The case
“They conned some Korean national who supplied them with ambulances. The Korean was promised to be paid with gold, but they did not make good on their promise,” the security source said.