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Twisted Titan
14th May 2010, 03:31 PM
By JON BURSTEIN


South Florida Sun Sentinel

The South Florida company had a grand name - Global Bullion Exchange - and boasted it was a leader in the precious metals industry.

Hundreds of customers from North Pole, Alaska to Miami - many seeking a safe investment harbor in uncertain economic times - sent it money so an advertised "team of experts" could guide them through the gold and silver markets.

But when the Lake Worth-based company closed overnight, its books showed at least 1,400 clients were out about $29.5 million. Some people saw their retirement nest eggs wiped out.

"It was 40 years of investment I lost," said social worker David Gruber, 72, who lost about $400,000 he put into precious metals. "It was 40 years of scrimping and saving…. Nothing has been the same since."

Amid the company's rubble, attorneys are scrambling to figure out what happened to customers' money and if there may literally be a pile of gold somewhere. A former company accountant has said in a sworn statement that the company's owner, Jamie Campany, once had more than $1 million in gold bars stashed in the trunk of his Mercedes.

Campany, of Delray Beach, has not been charged and his attorney Christopher Bruno told the Sun Sentinel he "fully intends to cooperate with all inquiries." He declined further comment.

Global Bullion Exchange, which had offices spanning South Florida, operated in a niche largely devoid of government regulation: the spot market of precious metals. That's when people buy actual gold or silver rather than just trade them on paper. In the case of Global Bullion Exchange, many customers asked the company to store their precious metals at a secure location until they decided to sell them.

The company's collapse last December provides yet another cautionary tale for novice investors who think a salesman's phone call out of the blue could lead to riches.

In the past three decades, South Florida has been home to a series of precious metals companies that have emptied customers' wallets - ranging from fly-by-night operations with a few telephones to the spectacular collapse in 1983 of the International Gold Bullion Exchange in Fort Lauderdale, which declared bankruptcy owing $75 million to about 23,000 customers.

Court rulings since 2004 have placed companies operating like Global Bullion Exchange outside the reach of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the government agency that oversees the commodity and financial futures markets. Because Global Bullion Exchange clients were signing contracts for the purchase of actual gold, the commission had no jurisdiction.

"It basically puts the least sophisticated customers in a completely unregulated environment," said Daniel Roth, president of the National Futures Association, a self-regulatory futures organization.

In the case of Global Bullion Exchange, the Sun Sentinel found:

Tax returns for the company's first two years - 2007 and 2008 - show most of the money brought in by the company went to brokers' commissions. In 2007, 77 percent of the company's gross receipts went to the brokers.

Of the 20 clients listed in company documents as losing more than $225,000, 10 are over 60 years old and three have died since 2007. Those three clients died at the ages of 83, 87 and 92.

Campany was suspended for six months by the National Futures Association in 2000 after reaching a settlement agreement on allegations he was involved with deceptive and misleading sales solicitations related to futures and options trading.

Authorities in California banned Global Bullion Exchange from soliciting that state's residents last year after finding the company was not licensed or registered to sell commodities there. California officials also concluded Campany had failed to disclose his past suspension by the National Futures Association and a 2001 personal bankruptcy.

Global Bullion Exchange shuttered its headquarters Dec. 14. Employees who came to work that day found a note taped on the door and a private security guard barring access. At its height, the company listed offices in Hollywood, Miami Beach, Jupiter, North Palm Beach, Tampa, Baltimore and Green Brook, N.J.

A month after closing the Lake Worth office, the company filed the state court equivalent of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy - putting itself under the control of a lawyer, Daniel Stermer.

Stermer said he has contacted the Florida Attorney General's Office and the state Office of Financial Regulation about Global Bullion Exchange's collapse. Officials with both agencies declined to comment.

Miami-Dade court records show that Campany reported Global Bullion Exchange had only $637,500 in assets when it went out of business, including $61,300 in silver bars. Clients are listed as being out about $29.5 million, according to those records.

Stermer said he doesn't know yet if the documents provided by Global Bullion Exchange are accurate and how many customers had active accounts at the end. He's already recovered a 34-foot Sea Ray boat and a 2009 Mercedes that Campany bought with Global Bullion Exchange funds but were not reported as company assets, he said.

Global Bullion Exchange did buy some precious metals, but it's unclear how much or what happened to them, Stermer said.

The company's former tax accountant said he once saw some of those glittering assets. Accountant John Boyer said that last summer Campany pulled up to his house, popped the trunk of his Mercedes and showed off what appeared to be between $1 million and $2 million in gold bars.

"I looked at them and I was kind of, 'Wow,' " Boyer said in a March 26 deposition. "I didn't ask where he was going with them or where he bought them."

Seven Global Bullion Exchange clients interviewed by the Sun Sentinel said they learned about the company when a broker they didn't know called them, promoting precious metals as a great investment. Most of the customers were novices in precious metals dealing. They said they either lost all of their money or most of it.

Company records list its two largest creditors as Bruce Gray, a retiree from Portland, Maine, and Gruber, of Ellensburg, Wash.

Gray, who died April 13 at age 87, lost almost $686,000, said John Graham, a Miami-based attorney who had been hired by him. Gray appears to have even mailed his own gold coins to Global Bullion Exchange for the company to store, Graham said.

"They sold him a bill of goods, and he gave his life savings," Graham said.

Gruber, the father of five and a foster parent of two, said he is out more than $400,000, but not to Global Bullion Exchange. He lost the money in 2006 to Barclay Trading Group, another precious metals company once run by Campany. Gruber said he doesn't know how he ended up listed as a Global Bullion Exchange customer.

He said he invested with Barclay because he thought he was dealing with the international bank. Gruber only realized when it was too late that the company had no connection to the bank and that brokers' commissions had consumed 55 percent of the money he handed over, according to a lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court by Gruber and his wife.

The Grubers' pending case against Campany and Barclay Trading Group alleges they took advantage of "vulnerable elderly investors." Barclay Trading Group dissolved in January 2008, according to state corporation records.

One group that may have profited handsomely from Global Bullion Exchange was its sales force. In 2007, the business had gross receipts of $1.55 million and of that, $1.21 million was paid out as sales commissions. Only $149,000 went for the purchase of precious metals, tax returns show.

For 2008, about 53 percent of the $14.1 million of the gross receipts - $7.5 million - went to pay brokers. Only 37 percent of the money - $5.2 million - went to buy precious metals, tax records show.

Stermer said he is determining whether he will try to recover some of those commissions from brokers.

Some clients thought they were getting financing to buy more gold, but Stermer said he has yet to hear from any companies that backed such transactions.

Roth, the National Futures Association's president, said that without federal oversight, it's generally up to the states to investigate companies dealing in the spot market for precious metals.

"States have limited resources and some of them may be stretched pretty thin," Roth said.

Stermer said he has been "brutally honest" with Global Bullion Exchange clients that it is unclear how much money will be recovered.

"These consumers, in many cases, gave their life's savings and they know we are doing what we can to try to recover money," he said.

mamboni
14th May 2010, 03:46 PM
Good pick up TT: this just happened a couple of days ago!!!

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/13/1627306/south-florida-bullion-firms-closure.html


This crook Jamie Campany pulled this fraud before!!!

randymatt
14th May 2010, 03:55 PM
IYDHI...

http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg404/randymatt/DSC00817.jpg?t=1273877572

Ponce
14th May 2010, 03:58 PM
Hehehehehehehehehheheeheh...........yours truly.......Uncle Ponce ;D

And this is nothing when compared with what is to come......SPECIALLY from the US government..........only problem with this is that even if you hold it they will try to take it away from you.

LOL Randy, I have it on right now............. ;D

StackerKen
14th May 2010, 04:00 PM
No doubt there are lots like this that have not been found out yet.

gunDriller
14th May 2010, 04:51 PM
Why not just give Campany's home address to all the people he swindled and let Mother Nature sort it out.

They may not get the gold they thought they owned but ... it doesn't sound like they'll be getting it anyway.

Chibioz
14th May 2010, 04:56 PM
Indeed, a good example. Sadly, it is but a drop in the bucket to the ponzi schemes that are the paper metals exchanges.

Ponce
14th May 2010, 04:58 PM
You know how I came about that saying?......when I lost $40.000 in housing investment in CA.........they guy stole 85 million bucks and then declared bankruptcy.

Twisted Titan
14th May 2010, 05:02 PM
Part of me feels sorry for the swindled people, but the other part thinks they are stupid MF'ers that have learned an incredibly expensive lesson.



To quote My Momma

AN EDUCATION IS WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU DO LISTEN.

AN EXPERIENCE IS WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU DO DONT!


T

Defender
14th May 2010, 06:28 PM
Global Bullion Exchange, which had offices spanning South Florida, operated in a niche largely devoid of government regulation: the spot market of precious metals. That's when people buy actual gold or silver rather than just trade them on paper Something that I'm sure will soon change.

Granted, this company was doing other things (or not as it turns out) but why should a straight retail transaction in gold/silver generate all kinds of oooh's and aaah's and be treated as anything other than a straight retail transaction? Was the author just so dumbstruck at the concept that anyone would actually buy "actual gold or silver"?

1970 Silver Art
14th May 2010, 07:05 PM
The Bernie Madoff of paper gold and silver.

Ironfield
15th May 2010, 08:33 PM
^^ Not quite the 65 Billion Madoff made off with but 29.5 Million is still a hell of a chunk of cash.

The following jumped out at me:

One group that may have profited handsomely from Global Bullion Exchange was its sales force. In 2007, the business had gross receipts of $1.55 million and of that, $1.21 million was paid out as sales commissions. Only $149,000 went for the purchase of precious metals, tax returns show.

For 2008, about 53 percent of the $14.1 million of the gross receipts - $7.5 million - went to pay brokers. Only 37 percent of the money - $5.2 million - went to buy precious metals, tax records show.

I never understood why the hell people buy into the system these investment gurus and fund managers almost never invest their own money and usually have a net wealth less than that of their clients. So why the hell would you ask for financial advice from someone who is less well off then you?

In the wise words of Ponce: "If you don't hold it, you don't own it"

-Ironfield

Olmstein
19th May 2010, 12:52 AM
No doubt there are lots like this that have not been found out yet.


Yeah, like COMEX and GLD.

skidmark
3rd June 2010, 08:34 AM
Follow up on the story:

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2010-06-01/news/fl-global-bullion-stolen-silver-20100528_1_jamie-campany-actual-gold-or-silver-global-bullion-exchange


Up to $500,000 in silver reportedly stolen from moving truck
Bars were from a troubled precious metals business

The co-owner of a Delray Beach sod and grass company came to work one morning to find a moving truck parked outside. No one was around. The back door was open. He peered inside.

Sodfather Sod Services owner Michael Richardson saw bars of silver — the stuff one would expect to be neatly lining a bank vault rather than strewn on the floor of a U-Haul, just yards from South Military Trail.

"It flabbergasted me," he said. "I didn't know what to think of it and I didn't want anything to do with it … I called the cops."

The truck had been rented by Jamie Campany, owner of a Lake Worth-based precious metals business that had closed its doors two days earlier. And while there were still some silver bars inside, Campany later told authorities that up to $500,000 of the precious metal had been stolen.
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The revelation of the incident last December adds a further layer of intrigue to the demise of Global Bullion Exchange, a company that held itself to be a leader in the precious metals industry.

When the business shut down, its books showed at least 1,400 clients were out about $29.5 million.

Questions abound, such as: Why would someone steal up to $500,000 in silver, but leave behind other boxes of silver bars along with those scattered on the floor? Why was a moving truck filled with precious metal parked on an unlit gravel road? Where was the metal being taken?

And some of those questions may never be answered. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office stopped pursuing the case after Campany declined to give a sworn statement. Attempts to lift fingerprints from the truck failed, reports show.

Campany's attorney, Christopher Bruno, said his client parked the truck outside the sod and grass company on Dec. 16 after packing up property he had removed from Global Bullion Exchange's headquarters. Campany, who lives in a development north of Sodfather, thought it was a safe place to leave the truck, his attorney said.

"He parked other equipment there in the past and he believed it to be a safe location," Bruno said.

Global Bullion Exchange operated in a niche largely devoid of government regulation: the spot market of precious metals. Clients of such businesses are told they are buying actual gold or silver rather than just trading on paper. Global Bullion Exchange assured customers the metals would be stored at a secure location until they decided to sell.

The company's tax returns for its first two years of operation — 2007 and 2008 — show most of the money it brought in went to brokers' commissions. A former company accountant has said in a sworn statement that Campany once had more than $1 million in gold bars in the trunk of his Mercedes.

Before closing, Global Bullion Exchange had offices across South Florida, including in Hollywood, North Palm Beach, Jupiter and Miami Beach.

Global Bullion Exchange has filed the state court equivalent of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. Daniel Stermer, the attorney now tasked with tracking down the money, said 557 former Global Bullion Exchange clients have filed claims seeking a total of $16.2 million.

Stermer said he had not heard about the missing silver until the Sun Sentinel brought it to his attention. He said he is now looking into the matter.

Bruno said Campany has been cooperating with all inquiries involving the company.
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Sheriff's Office reports indicate Campany spoke with deputies shortly after Richardson reported that the open U-Haul was found outside Sodfather. But in the days that followed, the detective investigating the burglary repeatedly asked Campany to give a sworn statement. He never did.

"We obtain statements — whether recorded or handwritten — and my goal was to get a statement from him," Detective Ryan Miller told the Sun Sentinel. "I never did, so the case was cleared out due to the lack of victim cooperation."

The morning the truck was discovered, Campany told deputies that he had emptied out Global Bullion Exchange's headquarters the night before and then parked the vehicle. Campany said only silver bars were taken, according to Sheriff's Office reports.

But whoever grabbed some of the silver left behind other bars that were found scattered on the truck's floor or packed in boxes, Miller said. In addition, there were copiers and other office equipment in the truck.

A padlock with a slightly bent clasp was found on the ground. A juice container was just inside the truck while an open cookie package and empty water bottle were on the rear bumper, according to Sheriff's Office reports.

Campany told deputies that he ate the cookies the day before and that the juice container was also his, reports show.

"He had the cookies outside of the back [of the] truck when he secured it the night before," Sheriff's Office reports state.

The day after the silver went missing, deputies were called out to the sod company again because the truck was still there. A tow truck was called to take the U-Haul away, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office reports. It's not clear from the reports what remained inside.

When asked about Campany's choice to leave a truck full of silver where he did, Miller said: "I don't think it was the safest position for parking it."

Jon Burstein can be reached at jburstein@SunSentinel.com or 954-356-44

johnlvs2run
3rd June 2010, 09:54 AM
these investment gurus and fund managers almost never invest their own money and usually have a net wealth less than that of their clients. So why the hell would you ask for financial advice from someone who is less well off then you?

I asked one of the local investment gurus, do you invest in the funds you recommend to others?

He said no, he did not.
Also he had lost 4 businesses in the last 10 years. It is better to not listen to such people.

Likewise I wonder why anyone listens to doctors.
Their average lifespan is 55 years and they know nothing about health.

k-os
3rd June 2010, 12:30 PM
About the followup story . . . the owner, Mr. Campany staged the theft. For sure.

Now . . . where is that Mercedes with a million worth of gold in the trunk? If it's in Lake Worth, it's not to far from me. ;D

SQUEXX
3rd June 2010, 03:15 PM
If someone ripped me off to the tune of $400k, I'd be looking for some SERIOUS revenge! And not stop at the perp!

gunDriller
3rd June 2010, 04:41 PM
If someone ripped me off to the tune of $400k, I'd be looking for some SERIOUS revenge! And not stop at the perp!


Mother Nature will Provide ! 8)

i wonder how many gold fraud schemes there are that will unravel, for every one that we hear about in the news.

i think there's a lot of investors that will be receiving a cash settlement at some point in the future when that cash buys much less. i would not be surprised to see a few of them go down to their local gun store and use that diminished cash to buy some firearms and bullets.

does Comex have metal detectors ? 8)

madfranks
7th June 2010, 01:05 PM
The day after the silver went missing, deputies were called out to the sod company again because the truck was still there. A tow truck was called to take the U-Haul away, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office reports. It's not clear from the reports what remained inside.

I'm sure a few of the officers needed some alone time to count all the silver to make sure it was all there.

Twisted Titan
17th June 2010, 02:18 PM
The day after the silver went missing, deputies were called out to the sod company again because the truck was still there. A tow truck was called to take the U-Haul away, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office reports. It's not clear from the reports what remained inside.

I'm sure a few of the officers needed some alone time to count all the silver to make sure it was all there.



To Quote a Cop I knew said it best.

ITS ONLY ILLEGAL........IF YOU GET CAUGHT.


T

oldmansmith
17th June 2010, 02:44 PM
[quote=Ironfield ]
Likewise I wonder why anyone listens to doctors.
Their average lifespan is 55 years and they know nothing about health.


I haven't had a physical since high school, haven't visited the doctor in more than 10 years. Look where their bread is buttered, that's all you need to know.
I'm sure that I have a drug deficiency that they could cure.