Auric Goldfinger

"*Mr Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action." Miami, Sandwich and now Geneva. I propose to wring the truth out of you.*"
― Auric Goldfinger[src]
**Auric Goldfinger** is the primary villain of the 1959 Ian Fleming novel *Goldfinger*.

## History

Originally hailing from Latvia, Auric Goldfinger is the self-proclaimed “richest man in the world” and the treasurer of SMERSH. Goldfinger's has an unnatural passion for gold bullion. He is also a jeweller, a metallurgist, and a smuggler.

When Goldfinger first meets James Bond in Miami, he claims that he is agoraphobic; a ploy to allow him to cheat a previous acquaintance of Bond's at a game of two-handed Canasta with Bond’s friend Junius Du Pont. Bond figures out how Goldfinger is managing this cheating and blackmails him by forcing him to admit his deception and the freedom of Jill Masterton.

Goldfinger is also an avid golfer, but is known at his club, Sandwich, for being a smooth cheater. When Bond contrives to play a match with Goldfinger, he again cheats the cheater by switching Goldfinger's Dunlop One with a Dunlop Seven he had found while playing. Bond notices and tricks Goldfinger into playing the wrong ball on the final hole to disqualify him.

Goldfinger is the owner of "Enterprises Auric A.G." in Switzerland, maker of metal furniture, which is bought by many airlines including Air India. A few times during the year, Goldfinger drives his Rolls Royce "Silver Ghost" car from England to Enterprises Auric. Bond learns that Goldfinger makes repeated dead drops of gold bars along the way and that his car's bodywork is 18 carat (75%), solid white gold under the ploy that the added weight is armour plating.

Once at Enterprises Auric, his car is stripped down, melted and made into furniture (seating) for an airline company that Enterprises Auric is heavily invested in. The planes are then flown to India where the seats are melted down again into gold bars and sold for a much higher premium rate; 100 to 200% profit.

Operation Grand Slam is Goldfinger's codename for his scheme that involves "knocking off" the U.S. bullion depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Through the use of a chemical created by the Germans during World War II, Goldfinger plans to poison the water supply at Fort Knox, thus rendering everyone on the base (60,000) dead. From there Goldfinger would use an atomic bomb he had purchased for one million USD to blow open Fort Knox's impregnable vault. With the help of American gangsters, Goldfinger would then remove roughly 15 billion dollars in gold bullion and escape.

James Bond foils Goldfinger's plan by getting word to Felix Leiter of the impending operation. With the help of The Pentagon, Leiter was able to stop Goldfinger, and foil the operation. But Goldfinger escapes.

Goldfinger met his end while trying to escape to the Soviet Union. He was choked to death by James Bond after attempting to get his revenge.

## Trivia

The character's name was borrowed from architect Ernö Goldfinger, and his character description bears some resemblance. Ernö Goldfinger consulted his lawyers when the book was published, prompting Fleming to suggest renaming the character "Goldprick", but eventually settled out of court in return for his costs, six copies of the book, and an agreement that the characters' first name Auric would always be used.