A Forbes magazine report says government authorities are preparing to unveil a new multicount fraud and money laundering indictment against James Fayed and his gold-trading companies, Goldfinger Coin & Bullion and e-Bullion. However, the attorney representing the now-shuttered companies has told the Standard that he has not seen any new evidence, and further stated that the IRS and FBI seizure of approximately $24 million from the firms in August was not authorized.
The Forbes report was published over the weekend and suggests that the scope of Fayed's alleged illegal activities was much larger than originally claimed by the government. The report, quoting unnamed authorities, says that from 2002 Fayed allowed e-Bullion to become a conduit for dozens of high-yield investment plans (HYIP), international ponzi schemes organized through the Internet. In addition, the Forbes report says Fayed issued digital gold currency in excess of e-Bullion's supposed physical gold holdings.
An unnamed source cited by Forbes says Fayed will soon be charged in a "multicount grand jury indictment accusing him of fraud and money laundering." Fayed is currently being held on murder charges relating to the July 28 slashing death of his wife and e-Bullion co-owner Pamela Fayed.
The Standard has asked the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles to confirm whether new grand jury charges are pending, but has yet to receive a reply.
James Spertus, the attorney representing e-Bullion and Goldfinger, told the Standard he had not heard of any new evidence or indictments, and expressed shock at the way the government has handled the case.
When asked about the allegations in Forbes that e-Bullion and Goldfinger were closely tied to HYIP scams, the attorney said they represented a "ridiculous allegation." Spertus said that prosecutors routinely request information from banks whose clients are allegedly involved in money laundering, but the financial institutions themselves are not charged. "We fully cooperated with the government when they asked us who the account holders were," he noted.
Spertus criticized the government's seizure of gold and other funds from the offices of e-Bullion and Goldfinger on August 5. "The government had no lawful authority to seize account holders' assets," he declared. "The government did not have a seizure warrant, and the search warrant did not authorize the seizure of the gold."
According to Spertus, the government is now trying to use a "forfeiture theory" to justify keeping the assets. He said that the U.S. District Court had refused to hear the motion for the return of assets, adding that the delays were denying his client the right to a speedy trial.
Spertus also revealed that he could no longer represent e-Bullion or Goldfinger in court, because the government claimed that he had a conflict of interest involving the companies' customers. "I cannot appear at trial ... I am no longer permitted to file on behalf of the company, because of the conflict of interest issue," he said, adding that he was now looking for another law firm to represent the companies.
Sources cited, referenced, or consulted: Forbes, Mark Herpel (DGC Magazine), James Spertus, Thom Mrozek (United States Attorney's Office, Central California)
Background:
- Feds drop charge against James Fayed, company still under indictment
- e-Bullion co-founder charged with murder
- e-Bullion's lawyer calls government's actions "extreme"
- e-Bullion update: Fayed's lawyers say feds seized $24 million in assets
- Why use e-Bullion? An investor explains
- Court papers indicate James Fayed had absolute control over e-Bullion
- Daughter seeks control of mother's ownership interest in e-Bullion
- Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage
- e-Bullion still down for "routine maintenance"
- e-Bullion co-founder jailed on money transfer charge
- Report: Feds investigating e-Bullion in fraud inquiry
- E-Gold directors escape jail time with guilty plea
- Where are they now: Flooz
Comments
Thanks Ian for some news.
I kinda expected the U.S. Attorney's Office to finally let their spokes person tell all the e-bullion account holders what they need to do or at least say when they will tell us. Everybody writes about Fayed etc. but the money didn't belong to Fayed, it belongs to the account holders.
It is about time the US Attorneys Office speaks up.
Thanks Ian for keeping on top of this.
Interesting story, thank you. If we are really talking a billion this is a serious development, it would make Goldfinger/E-Bullion the largest digital money launderers in US history.
I had a lot of money in an E-bullion account and am not involved in any HYIP or money laundering. I am an American Citizen and the US government, IRS, and FBI have defrauded me of (stolen) about $15,000.
Can I charge them with grand larceny?
The US Government REALLY needs to start talking, and explaining it's illegal actions, and give us our money back. Just because some account holders might have been involved in nefarious businesses doesn't make all of us bad, nor does it give them the right to shut down the whole company. And Just because Fayed may be a scumbag doesn't mean that his company didn't operate a legitimate business.
Thanks Ian for continuing to report on our plight! Who can we contact, and / or how can law abiding citizens help with the case? We want our money back! The person leading this prosecution needs to be aware that normal people did use the service for legitimate purposes. It seems like he may have a personal vendetta against E-Bullion, and I would like to take legal action against him for miscarriage of justice. He illegally stole $24 Million. The only thing that could make that OK is if he intends to give me my money back!
E-bullion did not take our money and keep it from us; the Feddies did THAT! Some jerk-off people who have bank accounts use the money and those accounts to commit crimes all the time; yet, the feddies do not shut down the whole bank and take the depositors' funds under the guise of "forfeiture." No, it looks like the feddies brazenly stole depositors' money as a "lesson" to those who wish to get out of fraudies and into real money--gold and silver. BIGGOV needs to stop stomping on the little guy and give us our hard-earned money back so we can go buy more gold and silver related assets.
we need to have some information and fast, i have caled and called the FBI and the only thing they say is that they are sorting through the case information. HELP, i have 20,000 usd invested and i NEED the money back ASAP
I have not kept up with this e-bullion situation. I have an account and have not seen any information on how to retrieve our money. If all accounts were seized, why haven't I been contacted by the FBI or whoever seized the accounts? What are accountholders doing to get their money back? Why do some people seem to think e-Bullion will be back in business. Not likely after the guy murders his wife and will be rotting in jail. What is everyone doing about this?
If anyone has answers, please respond.
Same here..
I have $6,000 held in my e-bullion account, and have no idea how to recover my funds, being a foreign resident. Please if anyone has answers, do respond.
Thanks
Same here..
I have $6,000 held in my e-bullion account, and have no idea how to recover my funds, being a foreign resident. Please if anyone has answers, do respond.
Thanks
This is simply another deplorable account of out of control, fascist, big government exploiting the people of this once great nation.
Like others on this forum I have nothing to hide from the Federals regarding any illegal activities.
I would simply like my money back.
The last I heard about the case is that the attorney who was representing E-Bullion, Inc. was Mr. James W. Spertus of Los Angeles. Mr. Spertus was dismissed from this case by a judge who deemed his contact with other account holders as a “conflict of interest” When I spoke with Mr. Spertus he was absolutely astonished at the government’s and the judges blatant disregard of the Constitution and the basic rights of the American people as represented in this case. He is now no longer able to represent or present the E-Bullion case before the court. I am attempting find out which legal counsel is now representing this case.
As far as I am able to determine this seems to be a moot point as the court has already sent strong signals indicating it’s bias towards the Governments position. After speaking with Mr. Spertus I believe this court judge will not even allow representation of E-Bullions case to be heard before him.
Perhaps the United States Government has supplied this court with an “incentive” to see it “their way”
If anybody has more information on this matter please don’t hesitate to contact me. Although I find it unlikely, perhaps a number of us could unify together in order to pursue what, if any, options we might explore in having our funds returned to us.
Hi Richard,
I have the same opinion, this is not possible, even if the media asks questions, the US attorneys office needs to have a spokesperson who informs the public ( Even 3rd world countries have that).
It seems the Media is not too much interested in this case of defrauding E-Bullion account holders. The US attorney even dropped the charges, so I don't understand why nobody can answer basic questions, like what has to be done. It seems, the US. government knows, the majority of accounts are from foreigners, so they do nothing, hoping it will be forgotten after some time. Something needs to be done. I am in on it if more people would like to unify, and do something.
Hi, Micinka, and thanks Ian for encourage and help to look for finding a way to get our money back from our accounts.
I am a foreigner, I am far from the middle of the Know-how with legal conflict, my account in e-bullion is involved of many years of work so I own as much 70 onz where I put legally on e-bullion and I never been involved on HYIP,-- I can not judge what persons can do with their money, I believe persons are free to do what ever they want to do with there money unless they don't make harm other people. I am very in need to get my money back as most every body. Is very hard to do some thing if you really are far for the event and with the lock of tools like language first of all and not knowing how to get together and hire a good lawyer and sue for all the harm who has ever made. I am no entitle to say if they are your authority s (FBI, ISR, AD etc.) I have been patients, and I think different of you think that should be a nice case for the MEDIA! I buy e-bullion because I have thought is the best and the only way to save and for ended maintain the real value of what we call real money, if it is real backed with gold of course.
Besides I saying many words that doesn't contribute or maybe little I would like to inform some that deserves your opinion and I borrow from The Yahoo Groups:
"Merf1" "Today I sent an e-mail to Mark Aveis, the Assistant US
Attorney asigned to the Fayed case. He advised an e-mail to a
Kelley, Maura (LA) (IC) maura.kelley@....
Here is her response.
Please send to me proof of your investment and holdings; ie
copies of Goldfinger Gold Bullion statements, copies of wires
etc and please send it to the FBI at 2075 S. Victoria Avenue,
Suite 200, Ventura, Ca 93003 or send it to this e-mail address.
You will be added to the list of those waiting for restitution in
this matter. At this point we are attempting to get a Receiver
appointed to handle the distribution of money back to
investors.
Thank You
Maura Kelley
Special Agent FBI
I took some encouragement from the response, at least they
appear to be doing something about it."
how can we have copies of the account if they closed the site suddenly? i know my account number and everything associated with the account but have no copies.
Yes thats right, my statements were online. This again a total fraud. I have a bank account and my statements are online, I don't get paper statements, and if something is wrong I go to the bank and they Print it out, so why don't the feds do that, since we cannot go to e-bullion to get our statements and they have all the info right there. What a bunch of jerks.
Any and all transactions with e-Bullion would have generated an e-mail response. Wire Transfer docs would also be available to you from the Bank you issued them from.
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