Feds are starting to destroy e-bullion like they did e-gold

[eyeofliberty]

Feds investigating e-Bullion in fraud inquiry (http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/08/01/report-feds-investigating-e-bullion-fraud-inquiry)

The Internet-based digital gold currency industry is once again under scrutiny, after one of the co-owners of e-Bullion (http://www.e-bullion.com/) was murdered earlier this week in a Los Angeles parking garage. Police have not named any suspects or identified a motive for the killing, but the Los Angeles Times reports this morning that e-Bullion was already under investigation (http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-century1-2008aug01,0,3274366.story?track=rss) in an "ongoing FBI fraud inquiry."

Last week, the owners and top executives another digital gold currency firm, e-gold, pled guilty in a federal money-laundering trial and agreed to submit to U.S. regulatory oversight (http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/07/22/online-currencies-will-e-golds-competitors-abandon-u-s-market).

Using Internet transactions, digital gold currency companies take customer deposits and match them with the equivalent amount of gold supposedly stored in vaults. Many of the companies are unregulated and/or incorporated in other countries to avoid U.S. financial laws and shield the identity of clients. The firms also attract customers who don't trust greenbacks or other paper currencies. As noted by the LA Times article:"Such arrangements typically appeal to people harboring strong doubts about the stability of the international monetary system and who believe they are insulating their wealth from a global collapse by tying it to the value of gold."
Digital gold currencies have also been used for money laundering and other criminal activity, such as a kidnapping last month (http://www.kickoffnigeria.com/static/news/article.php?id=2227) of the brother of a Nigerian soccer player.

Also:
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/08/05/e-bullion-co-founder-jailed-money-transfer-charge

[sindgefallen]

I did not know that the e-gold exec's plead guilty or were even on trial. I just recently read a story about Doug Scott or whatver his name is from e-gold where the Attorney General stated that e-gold was operating in a loop hole and their dealings are legal.

Interesting info thanks EOL.

[Cassandra]

You think this was a frame up?

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-centurycity5-2008aug05,0,1124595.story

Federal prosecutors for the first time have publicly linked the recent slaying of a woman in a Century City parking garage to her estranged husband, revealing in court Monday that the SUV allegedly used by the killer had been rented using the husband's credit card.

he credit card was seized from the wallet of James Fayed during a recent search of his Moorpark ranch house, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark Aveis. The license plate of the vehicle was caught on security surveillance cameras and traced to an Avis rental car agency near Fayed's Camarillo business, he said.

Aveis' comments came as Fayed appeared in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to face felony charges of conducting unlicensed money transactions through the international gold trading company he ran with his wife, Pamela. Fayed, 45, was arrested Friday evening and remains in federal custody.

During the hearing, Aveis told U.S. Magistrate Judge Ralph Zarefsky that Fayed presented a danger to the community, was a flight risk and should not be allowed to post bail.

But Zarefsky said the evidence that Fayed had attempted to obstruct justice by killing his wife so she wouldn't testify against him in the federal case was "pretty thin."

He ordered the defendant released on $500,000 bond but gave prosecutors until Wednesday to appeal his decision.

Fayed, dressed in a brown T-shirt and plaid pajama-style pants, sat expressionless as the prosecutor argued his case, recounting a meeting this summer between Fayed and his wife, who were in the midst of a bitter divorce.

Aveis said Fayed told his wife, "I could have you killed and my hands would be clean." He said the defendant then made a motion as if he were wiping his hands, according to an account Pamela Fayed gave a friend.

In addition to the credit card, authorities seized $60,000, some of it sealed in plastic wrap, and $3 million in gold bullion at Fayed's house, Aveis said. Twenty-five weapons including assault rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition were also seized, he said.

Though Fayed has not been charged in his wife's slaying, Aveis said he had a motive to have her killed -- "so that she could not testify against him" in the criminal case at issue in Monday's hearing.

Los Angeles Police Capt. Bill Eaton said Monday that Fayed has not been named as a suspect in his wife's death.

Fayed's attorney, Mark Werksman, told Zarefsky that the prosecutor's claims were based on third-hand information from a rookie FBI agent who had only recently been briefed on the case.

"The government has rushed in here with uncorroborated, unsubstantiated allegations of a murder," he said.

Pamela Fayed, 45, was attacked by a man with a knife July 28 in the parking garage of a Century City high-rise, investigators said. The perpetrator was "lying in wait," Aveis said.

The prosecutor said Pamela and James Fayed and their attorneys were scheduled to meet at the office complex to discuss legal matters.

According to the LAPD, several witnesses said they saw a red SUV speed away from the floor of the parking garage where Pamela Fayed was slain. Surveillance cameras captured the SUV with a man at the wheel leaving the parking lot and driving down the street at high speed moments after the killing, police said.

Los Angeles police detectives investigating Pamela Fayed's slaying have been looking for possible links between her death and the couple's jointly owned companies, Goldfinger Coin and Bullion Sales and an associated Internet firm, e-Bullion, law enforcement sources have said.

Police searched James Fayed's home looking for evidence in the homicide investigation last week.

Aveis characterized Fayed's business operations during 2005 and 2006 as Ponzi schemes in which individuals invested up to $20 million.

James Fayed filed for divorce in October, and the couple had since fought bitterly over control of the companies.

Pamela Fayed, who remained in the couple's Camarillo home after they separated, said in court papers that the couple had bank accounts worth $12 million and that her husband had been blocking her access to their business records.

She asked the court for "ground rules to protect our clients and personal assets."

James Fayed alleged in a court filing that his wife "has a history of making false accusations" and had threatened "to throw me in jail." He said that when he contemplated divorce in 2000, Pamela told him she would retaliate by claiming that he had assaulted her and sexually assaulted one of their daughters.

The couple had two children, an 18-year-old daughter from Pamela's first marriage, and a 9-year-old daughter.

The Fayeds' companies function as wholesalers of precious metals and provide trading services to individuals who wish to invest in gold and silver without the cost of storing, insuring and transporting bullion. Goldfinger and e-Bullion say they maintain their own bullion vaults in Los Angeles, Delaware, Switzerland and Australia.

Company literature says that account holders can access their funds through wire transfers and debit cards that can be used at ATMs to "convert gold to cash," as an e-Bullion executive put it in a 2002 news release. Such arrangements typically appeal to people who doubt the stability of the international monetary system and who believe they are insulating their wealth from a global collapse by tying it to the value of gold.

As the Fayeds' marriage crumbled, Pamela was seeking to have the family business treated as a separate entity as it related to their divorce proceedings, according to court filings.

She said she was doing so because she feared her husband was trying to hide some of their assets and stash stores of gold and silver in secret vaults. Pamela Fayed was killed on the eve of a court hearing at which the issue was expected to be addressed.

scott.glover@latimes.com

[eyeofliberty]

I did not know that the e-gold exec's plead guilty or were even on trial.

My impression of the e-gold case is that they pled guilty as an expedient, rather than letting it continue to drag out. Sounds like Jackson just wants to put this behind them, and get on with making some changes and continuing with business.

For anyone interested in digital gold/silver currency, this is a good magazine:

DGC Magazine (http://www.dgcmagazine.com/)

You can download each issue in PDF format.

[eyeofliberty]

You think this was a frame up?

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-centurycity5-2008aug05,0,1124595.story

I certainly think it's possible...

[107.8682]

I'm not exactly sure why we should support the exchange of fraudulent fiat currency for fraudulent, non-existent "gold."

[eyeofliberty]

I'm not exactly sure why we should support the exchange of fraudulent fiat currency for fraudulent, non-existent "gold."

It depends on which DGC you use, whether it's allocated or unallocated storage. I have a GoldMoney account, which is allocated storage. But, I don't use it anymore, since they changed their U.S. banking policy.

[budfox]

Turk better watch out!

Fiat doesn't like competition.

[eyeofliberty]

Turk better watch out!

Fiat doesn't like competition.

I was thinking the same thing. Fortunately, I think he's in a better position than both e-gold and e-bullion.

[phideaux]

I was thinking the same thing. Fortunately, I think he's in a better position than both e-gold and e-bullion.


Turk is legit. He's got Lloyd's of London behind him. :rolleyes_m:

[budfox]

Turk is legit. He's got Lloyd's of London behind him. :rolleyes_m:

I agree but if they want him out they'll get him.

[eyeofliberty]

Turk is legit. He's got Lloyd's of London behind him. :rolleyes_m:

I agree but if they want him out they'll get him.

Absolutely. TPTB won't let a little detail like "legitimacy" get in their way if they want someone's ass.

[Ryedale]

Turk better watch out!

Fiat doesn't like competition.


This really isn't much different than SLV or GLD, the exchange traded funds is it?

[phideaux]

Absolutely. TPTB won't let a little detail like "legitimacy" get in their way if they want someone's ass.

They won't want his ass, they'll want his gold and silver. :D

[eyeofliberty]

This really isn't much different than SLV or GLD, the exchange traded funds is it?

Yes, it is. GoldMoney is allocated physical precious metals, stored in a vault. It's not digits on paper. You could take delivery, if you wanted to.

[budfox]

This really isn't much different than SLV or GLD, the exchange traded funds is it?

Yes, it is night and day. SLV and GLD are shorting vehicles for the Cartel. Turk is legit, real gold in real vaults and audited.

[phideaux]

This really isn't much different than SLV or GLD, the exchange traded funds is it?

Goldmoney is really a bank, a good old-fashioned one. They hold your gold (or silver) for you in your name, you hold a legally binding "warehouse receipt" for it.

[Ryedale]

Thanks guys, my point is that you are still trusting another man with your "stuff" while holding a receipt, leagally binding or not. Although better than an ETF, I would still rather manage my own, that is, if I had any to manage. I guess one has to choose which type of risk he's comfortable with. Thanks for the comments.

[eyeofliberty]

Thanks guys, my point is that you are still trusting another man with your "stuff" while holding a receipt, leagally binding or not. Although better than an ETF, I would still rather manage my own, that is, if I had any to manage. I guess one has to choose which type of risk he's comfortable with. Thanks for the comments.

True, and this is another reason I don't use my GoldMoney account any more. All PMs are held in the "Bank of EoL". :D

[phideaux]

Thanks guys, my point is that you are still trusting another man with your "stuff" while holding a receipt, leagally binding or not. Although better than an ETF, I would still rather manage my own, that is, if I had any to manage. I guess one has to choose which type of risk he's comfortable with. Thanks for the comments.


I think most at GIM would agree that "holding your own" is the much-preferred strategy.

IMHO GoldMoney does have its own place in a PM portfolio. There are other threads in the archives that go into it all in excruciating detail. :wink:

[Worldmariner]

Thanks guys, my point is that you are still trusting another man with your "stuff" while holding a receipt, leagally binding or not. Although better than an ETF, I would still rather manage my own, that is, if I had any to manage. I guess one has to choose which type of risk he's comfortable with. Thanks for the comments.

Picture this... You are sipping your morning coffee... eating a bagel that your lovely wife just made for you, kids still asleep, the office is still closed.
You turn on the morning financial news and to your utter dismay, you see that the Fed has just seized all the gold that you "own" in conjunction with thier DGC investigation. $450,000... GONE... just like that.

I think I would immediatly vomit.

[budfox]

Yes, I can just see the headline. Due to the war on drugs and money laundering all assets have be confiscated pending further review. Have a nice day.

[Twisted Avatar]

DONT LET ANYBODY HOLD ANYTHING FOR YOU. PERIOD END OF STORY.

DONT DEAL IN PAPER SILVER AND GOLD..... THE FEDS ARE TURNING UP THE HEAT SO THERE IS NO PLACE TO HIDE YOUR WEALTH EXCEPT IN A BANK OR FINANCIAL INSTRUMENT.

THIS WILL ONLY INCREASE..... THE SMALL BULLION HOUSES ARE GOING TO FALL LIKE DOMINOES AND PART OF THE PLEA AGREEMENT WILL BE THAT THEY TURN OVER CLIENTS LISTS TO DHS AND THE IRS.

CUT THE STRINGS FROM PLACES LIKE THESE OR THEY WILL IN DUE TIME BE FASHIONED IN TO THE NOOSE YOU GET HANGED WITH .


T

[Worldmariner]

DONT LET ANYBODY HOLD ANYTHING FOR YOU. PERIOD END OF STORY.

THIS WILL ONLY INCREASE..... THE SMALL BULLION HOUSES ARE GOING TO FALL LIKE DOMINOES AND PART OF THE PLEA AGREEMENT WILL BE THAT THEY TURN OVER CLIENTS LISTS TO DHS AND THE IRS.


T

This just has the solid ring of a future truth...

[bonaparte]

Picture this... You are sipping your morning coffee... eating a bagel that your lovely wife just made for you, kids still asleep, the office is still closed.
You turn on the morning financial news and to your utter dismay, you see that the Fed has just seized all the gold that you "own" in conjunction with thier DGC investigation. $450,000... GONE... just like that.

I think I would immediatly vomit.


Something like this did happen to my wife and I. We had about $8000 held by a company called Neteller. When the feds started their investigation on them the Department of Justice jumped in and FROZE EVERY ACCOUNT. Nobody could take their money out for about 6 months. After that they gave us all a timeline to take our money out and if we didn't by the deadline it simply went to the DOJ.

The government will do anything it can get away with, and as long as you are in the minority you're toast.

[johnlvs2run]

You think this was a frame up?

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-centurycity5-2008aug05,0,1124595.story

Truth be told.

In addition to the credit card, authorities stole $60,000, some of it sealed in plastic wrap, and stole $3 million in gold bullion at Fayed's house, Aveis said. Twenty-five weapons including assault rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition were also stolen by authorities.

[Saul Mine]

The international banksters insist that every country have a central bank and fraudulent paper money. Anybody who resists gets murdered. It has been a continuing part of the business.