In the early 1990s, a company called Goldenberg International defrauded the Kenyan government of over $600 million through a gold export compensation scheme that paid the company for gold exports that never happened. The scandal involved some of the most powerful figures in the Moi government. A commission of inquiry years later found that the money had been systematically stolen from public funds. Goldenberg was not a Kenyan failure. It was a deliberate looting of public resources by people with political protection. The money lost could have built hundreds of schools and hospitals.