The e-currency service e-Bullion has been inaccessible since August 5. While the reasons for the outage are unclear, scores of account holders have vented their anger, frustration, and worry on Industry Standard comment threads. One reader from South Carolina, Bryan Nevins, agreed to be interviewed by The Industry Standard, to discuss how he feels about the situation, and why he invested in e-Bullion in the first place.
The Industry Standard: When did you start using e-Bullion?
Bryan Nevins: I started using E-bullion in the fall of 2005.
TIS: Why use such a service, and why pick e-Bullion?
Nevins: I wanted to own silver, but I had no good place to keep silver bullion. There was no silver ETF. E-gold’s customer support had a poor reputation, and Gold Money did not have silver holdings then.
E-bullion had a U.S. address, and phone numbers that were answered by people who sounded like Americans. You could wire money directly to them, without using an exchanger. So they had relationships with mainstream banks. They had been in business for several years, and had a fairly good reputation. I liked the "crypto card" security system.
TIS: Can you describe how much your initial deposit was?
Nevins: Over 1,000 ounces of silver.
TIS: As the value of silver has risen, how much have your e-Bullion holdings increased on a percentage basis?
Nevins: It has more than doubled, if I take the silver high of a few months ago.
TIS: When you established your account, were you aware that e-Bullion was not a regulated financial institution, like a bank or commodities exchange?
Nevins: I was aware that regulations on e-bullion were minimal, and that worried me.
But if you look at banks, their leverage is very high. The FDIC will likely not be able to cover potential losses if some large banks go belly up. So the "security" of mainstream institutions is less than people think -- I can remember the S&L crisis of the 80’s. Besides that, inflation is very high, so you are sure to lose purchasing power in a bank savings account.
I did some checking around. E-bullion had been in business for years, and I could find no accounts of money "disappearing." The fact that the business had a physical presence in California gave it some legitimacy
I have seen many "scam" sites on the Internet, and they are usually very obvious. They offer very high returns. There are no names or real addresses given, and no reasonable description of a business plan.
Even now, none of the public documents suggests that e-bullion was a fraud. They are investigated for "money laundering". If e-bullion was a fraud, it was an unusually elaborate one.
Family members are fighting for ownership of the business, which is not rational if it is a pyramid scheme.
TIS: When did you discover that you were unable to access your e-Bullion account?
Nevins: It was about August 6. I had checked my account just a few weeks earlier and everything was fine.
TIS: What's your take on the current site outage, and the DOJ investigation of the service?
Comments
I read the whole Interview, but I don't know where Bryan got that charge with money laudering. I only see the charge of transmitting money without a license. So please show me where money laundering charges are in the indictment. He is charged with unlicesed money transmitting and he is a suspect in the murder of his wife, thats what I got from all the info on the net.
Hyips have partially also nothing to do with it, because Fayed was not running a HYIP website.
I say partially, because HYIPS where account holders, but there is also none such charge against Fayed. So please people use facts only, do not speculate, because some people might take your speculation as true.
"I read the whole Interview, but I don't know where Bryan got that charge with money laudering. I only see the charge of transmitting money without a license. So please show me where money laundering charges are in the indictment. He is charged with unlicesed money transmitting and he is a suspect in the murder of his wife, thats what I got from all the info on the net.
Hyips have partially also nothing to do with it, because Fayed was not running a HYIP website.
I say partially, because HYIPS where account holders, but there is also none such charge against Fayed. So please people use facts only, do not speculate, because some people might take your speculation as true."
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. They seized 3 million dollars worth of gold. His wife was going to cooperate with the Feds in June. Do you really think they were under investigation for 7 months over an unlicensed business???? If you do then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you!
I like facts Ruby, and not some assumptions. They seized 3 million worth of gold and some cash, but there is no law which tells you where to store gold. And next 3 million is nothig against what he has in the accounts. And yes they were that long under investigation, because there were problems with getting Fayed show them the accounting or bookkeeping records, please read all the info. And only towards the end the wife agreed to cooperate. Also the Feds got the accounting documents due to the divorce settlement procedures, so there is your duck.
Just a note on the positive side. There is NOT any evidence yet that an account has been seized-- beyond what was found at his house. Other bank accounts, bullion accounts etc. no one knows, however, Monday is his arraignment and there should be more news. I was reading the back documents on the first e-gold problem and while their bank accounts were originally frozen, they were returned.
http://www.e-gold.com/letter2.html
http://www.financialcryptography.com/mt/archives/000640.html
There are loads of documents on this and above and some of it is very similar to the current money charge in the e/b case. Hope for sunshine and prepare for rain.
Have a good weekend and special thanks to Ian and The Standard for allowing such wide discussion.
Mark
Hi Ian,
I have used E-Bullion and E-Gold for a few years mainly to fund overseas investments and to play with HYIPs. I have never had a problem with either. In my opinion these two are the easiest for transferring money. I used E-Bullion because one can fund it directly and most good investments use it. E-Gold is a little harder to fund since one has to use a third party exchanger and it cost a lot to withdraw funds. I have seen some exchangers charge over 20% to get money out of E=Gold. Being regulated was not a concern since they appeared legitimate and a lot of investment companies use them.
hello.
I have been with e-bullion in about 4 years I never had any problem with them always called over the phone their are the most easies to used to do any great business or investment overseas.
My only concerned right now I have people who sent the fund into their accounts the past 15-21 days I would like to know if the money order will come back to them or not.
I took my time to created an account for friends I don't want to be ashamed in front of loses their money .
thank's
Noel
Everyone: The latest e-Bullion update has been posted at the following location:
e-Bullion's lawyer calls government's actions "extreme"
Please note that I am unable to help anyone recover their money from e-Bullion or federal authorities, and I am unaware of any process to have funds in e-Bullion accounts returned to their rightful owners. However, I will report this news if it comes to light. I would suggest keeping an eye on the list of most recent articles about e-Bullion, published at the following link:
Latest e-Bullion articles
Also, if you do have news to share, please clearly identify the source of that information. Do not spread unconfirmed rumors about the situation -- a lot of people are very concerned about what's happening, and are making real-world decisions based on what they are seeing on the Web.
Ian Lamont
Managing Editor
The Industry Standard
hello people.
I have people who sent their money to fund their account on august 3-5th, one of them is Mauricin cherilus $100 one is wilmise aldoph $50 I knew those people money it's not yet cash .
Please help us recorver those fund back .
Many family members in florida are sent money to fund their account also .
Thank's
Noel
I have formed a Yahoo group to organize E-bullion information and figure out how to get our
holdings back. If you wish to participate, send your email to this address:
bryanAuAg@yahoo.com
1) Share information
2) figure out what to do
3) Possibly share costs of legal assistance & other professional help
(costs can be distributed according to account value)
I think the government trying to protect us from these things is a sham.
The government did a similar thing with a digital money site called EMO. Court Documents showed that the government came in and ate up all the assets of account holders being paid to fees going to some legal firm in charge of auditing the assets to return them to the owners. It seemed like everyweek they were charging a few hundred thousand dollars for their services. Eventually people got one fifth of their money back. It was such a crock. Legalized plunder.
Thank you government for protecting us by giving our money away to big law firms!
I had an ebullion account but haven't used in in years.
The federal reserve and current banking system is the real sham. They make money out of thin air and destroy the economy by encouraging debt. It sounds like ebullion at least had real assets, unlike the Fed or most banks.
They make all this legislation just to keep other people from ruining their money monopoly. Just like finance reform in politics isn't there to help the new guy have a better shot running for office. It is there to make it more complicated for the new guy to run for office.
government regulation is out of control and if we would just return to a gold standard, we wouldn't have to worry about this because the gold standard will stop feeding the beast. Fiat money just feeds the beast.
Dear Bryan,
Have you any idea of progress about your group to share how to get our assets back, If so,pls. give some information
Thanks,
Pat
Readers: There are two major developments in the e-Bullion story, located at the following locations:
Copies of the relevant court documents are linked from the articles. I am closing the comment thread here, but you are welcome to continue the discussion in the comment threads for the two new articles.
Ian Lamont
Managing Editor
The Industry Standard