First State Depository: Court orders $146m penalty over missing silver coins

[searcher]

Court orders $146m penalty over missing silver coins​

AUS court has ordered two precious metals companies to pay almost $146m (£115m) after more than 500,000 American Silver Eagle coins went missing.

The firms and their owner Robert Higgins have been accused of running a "fraudulent and deceptive scheme".

They had allegedly promised to store the coins for customers.

However, when investigators entered vaults that were meant to hold the coins, they were nowhere to be found.

More here:

MSN

______________________________________

Statement of Commissioner Kristin N. Johnson Regarding CFTC Settlement with First State Depository Company, LLC and Argent Asset Group LLC for Precious Metals Fraud​

Statement of Commissioner Kristin N. Johnson Regarding CFTC Settlement with First State Depository Company, LLC and Argent Asset Group LLC for Precious Metals Fraud | CFTC

www.cftc.gov

______________________________________________

If you don't hold it you don't own it - Ponce

 

[Unca Walt]

WHY would someone take the most valuable thing they own and give it to someone else to hold it for them?

At absolute, pinnacle BEST, the person will break even by getting it back.

ALL other results are negative, and examples of deception by the "holders" are everywhere.

It's clearly a kind of Darwinian sorting: fools from money.

 

[nickndfl]

I do not even trust a Swiss bank at this point to hold a 1968 US Mint set. They can change rules and laws just when you need your stuff most. If things blow up you know banks and private depositories will be closed down for everybody except those who are in the building at the time. You will never see any physical ever again and will receive a handful of digits in compensation, if that.

 

[searcher]

Philadelphia Inquirer

Federal investigation is looking for at least $75 million in missing silver and gold from a Delaware warehouse​

The empty vault’s heavy steel door stood ajar at the end of November beside the last unclaimed silver proof coins set in piles to be sold at auction.

Court-appointed receiver Kelly Campbell had been overseeing this depleted storage facility of First State Depository Co. LLC for the past year, arriving the previous fall with U.S. marshals and a judge’s order. He and auditors from Baker Tilly checked the coins against records showing around $140 million in gold and silver. Much was missing.

Around 2,100 customers stored gold or silver at First State in labeled boxes, like a bank deposit box. Many were retirees who had been persuaded to include precious metals in their IRA or 401K accounts. For tax reasons, they needed to store the metals in a secure place away from home, which First State claimed to offer.

“Most of these investors were elderly people,” Campbell said. “They were investing their savings. It’s tragic.”

Campbell’s team recovered $64 million of precious metals from nearly 1,000 boxes and sent it back to the owners.

More:

MSN

 

[Unca Walt]

Philadelphia Inquirer

Federal investigation is looking for at least $75 million in missing silver and gold from a Delaware warehouse​

The empty vault’s heavy steel door stood ajar at the end of November beside the last unclaimed silver proof coins set in piles to be sold at auction.

Court-appointed receiver Kelly Campbell had been overseeing this depleted storage facility of First State Depository Co. LLC for the past year, arriving the previous fall with U.S. marshals and a judge’s order. He and auditors from Baker Tilly checked the coins against records showing around $140 million in gold and silver. Much was missing.

Around 2,100 customers stored gold or silver at First State in labeled boxes, like a bank deposit box. Many were retirees who had been persuaded to include precious metals in their IRA or 401K accounts. For tax reasons, they needed to store the metals in a secure place away from home, which First State claimed to offer.

“Most of these investors were elderly people,” Campbell said. “They were investing their savings. It’s tragic.”

Campbell’s team recovered $64 million of precious metals from nearly 1,000 boxes and sent it back to the owners.

More:

MSN

Damn, Search... that really sucks.

It makes our mutual paranoia suddenly quite reasonable. A fukking receipt is NOTHING but a piece of paper. Even when embossed with very official curlicues and words.

It's the old stacker saying writ large.

 

[pmbug]

...
It's the old stacker saying writ large.

If you don't hold it, you don't own it. -First State Depository Co LLC

 

[CopperSilverGold]

It's no different than fiat in a bank. You are a creditor and your deposit balance digits on the screen is an IOU. Be your own bank whether it's fiat or PMs.

 

[michael59]

It's no different than fiat in a bank. You are a creditor and your deposit balance digits on the screen is an IOU. Be your own bank whether it's fiat or PMs.

Fiat is just portable accounting notes. If they are never accounted for in a ledger then they do not exist. As per IOU's after '08? what does it really matter? '08 was the fiasco. B'n ur own bank? yeah, I had to drag that boat up and burn it. The lady of the lake holds all.....

 

[rblong2us]

My reasoning for using Goldmoney and Bullionvault is as follows -

If I store my stash at home and need to buy stuff, I have to sell it, so have to allow for the costs and time of secure transport, assay has to be done because its been taken out of the guranteed secure storage loop and then actually get someone to bid on it and risk the actual exchange.
If I store it at home and tell no one and die, its all wasted.
If I store it at home and tell someone where its hidden, I have to trust them massively and I dont want to tempt my offspring or their partners to 'hurry things along'. Kinda similar if I tell em where the black box is with all the instructions, that they will only find after Ive buggered off.

So with the gold in secure vaults in Zurich, ( it doesnt feel as secure as it used to, with CH supporting NATO in Ukraine) I can sell at any time of the day or night and recieve offers based on real world markets. I can and have sold when prices are near ATH and its a good feeling, with the fiats showing immediately in my linked account.
I pay for storage and insurance and its seen as stored property not a banking regime.
I can take delivery if I want to but this has costs.

So yeah coins and a local coin shop makes some sense but the 'we buy gold' outfits are not your friend when you need them.

Big risks for me are loss of internet or a wipeout similar to the title of this thread. If Fiat fails and the vault in CH remains functional, I might be able to sell for whatever replaces the current fiats.
But Ive learned that the rainy day fund is not as important as I used to think when raising a family and paying down a mortgage.
Health, resiliance, practical skills and community plus a full storage tank of diesel are what matters (-:

 

[searcher]

Grand jury adds victims and details in disappearance of gold and silver from Delaware depository​

If convicted on all charges, Robert Leroy Higgins faces up to 45 years in prison after investors' assets disappeared from the depository he ran in Delaware.

Published Feb. 19, 2024

Robert Leroy Higgins’ Delaware gold and silver storage businesses ran out of operating funds in 2012, but, according to a federal grand jury, the West Chester precious-metals dealer was able to attract new clients and stay in business for 10 more years by stealing coins and bullion that 1,000 customers had entrusted to the vaults at his Wilmington warehouse.

Higgins is due in Delaware’s federal court Thursday for arraignment on criminal fraud and tax charges first leveled in 2022 and amended three times, the last filed Feb. 15 after attorneys for Higgins and the U.S. attorney for Delaware failed to settle the case without a trial.

If convicted on all charges, Higgins faces up to 45 years in prison. He remains free on condition that he not leave the area, said his lawyer, Jeremy Gonzalez Ibrahim of Chadds Ford.

Higgins, 68, a longtime coin, bullion, and currency dealer, owned First State Depository, one of several Delaware businesses that hold precious metals for companies and individual investors.

More:

Grand jury adds victims and details in disappearance of gold and silver from Delaware depository

If convicted on all charges, Robert Leroy Higgins faces up to 45 years in prison after investors' assets disappeared from the depository he ran in Delaware.

www.inquirer.com

 

[CopperSilverGold]

Grand jury adds victims and details in disappearance of gold and silver from Delaware depository​

If convicted on all charges, Robert Leroy Higgins faces up to 45 years in prison after investors' assets disappeared from the depository he ran in Delaware.

Published Feb. 19, 2024

Robert Leroy Higgins’ Delaware gold and silver storage businesses ran out of operating funds in 2012, but, according to a federal grand jury, the West Chester precious-metals dealer was able to attract new clients and stay in business for 10 more years by stealing coins and bullion that 1,000 customers had entrusted to the vaults at his Wilmington warehouse.

Higgins is due in Delaware’s federal court Thursday for arraignment on criminal fraud and tax charges first leveled in 2022 and amended three times, the last filed Feb. 15 after attorneys for Higgins and the U.S. attorney for Delaware failed to settle the case without a trial.

If convicted on all charges, Higgins faces up to 45 years in prison. He remains free on condition that he not leave the area, said his lawyer, Jeremy Gonzalez Ibrahim of Chadds Ford.

Higgins, 68, a longtime coin, bullion, and currency dealer, owned First State Depository, one of several Delaware businesses that hold precious metals for companies and individual investors.

More:

Grand jury adds victims and details in disappearance of gold and silver from Delaware depository

If convicted on all charges, Robert Leroy Higgins faces up to 45 years in prison after investors' assets disappeared from the depository he ran in Delaware.

www.inquirer.com

SMH....when will people learn - if you don't hold it, you don't own it.

 

[searcher]

if you don't hold it, you don't own it.

RIP Ponce

 

[pmbug]

...
Robert Leroy Higgins, a West Chester, Pennsylvania, man who for more than a decade operated the First State Depository Co. and various precious metals brokerage businesses out of Wilmington, pleaded not guilty to a raft of tax and fraud charges in Delaware District Court.
...
Thursday was his initial appearance in court on a third round of federal tax and fraud criminal charges in a case that could lead to more than four decades in prison.

In court, he tersely acknowledged to the magistrate that he understood the charges against him and entered his plea. After the hearing, he declined to comment through his attorney, Jeremy H. Gonzalez Ibrahim.

Separately, he faces another federal case where prosecutors said gold coins found stashed in the ceiling of his home are evidence that he lied to a judge under oath. He also allegedly posted "silence is GOLDen" on a witness's Facebook page in what prosecutors describe as a criminal attempt at intimidation.

Similar facts were also before another federal judge in a civil case brought by federal financial regulators to order Higgins and his companies to pay more than $112.7 million in restitution to defrauded investors along with $33 million in civil penalties.
...
The first victim outlined in charging documents in the criminal case agreed in February 2012 to purchase $1.2 million in silver through Higgins, silver that was to be stored in his vault. Over the next three days, Higgins spent down some $800,000 of that money on business expenses, partially on a $250,000 loan payment. The victim received a fake invoice for the purchase of 31 silver bars that never occurred, prosecutors wrote.
...
The civil case against Higgins' companies was closed in July with the judge ordering more than $100 million in restitution be paid along with the $33 million in civil penalties.

It's likely that only a small fraction of what's owed to investors will ever be recovered.

Higgins was originally charged in the criminal case in 2022. Since then prosecutors have added charges to his case on two different occasions as the case has largely remained on hold. The latest criminal indictment centers on seven different victims that prosecutors claimed were ripped off by Higgins brokerage companies or the depository.
...
... Last year, he petitioned the court to appoint him an attorney in his criminal case, representing that he was indigent.

District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika called Higgins to court with some questions. She noted that he said he had no income since 2012, but had gone on overseas vacations since and owned a $900,000 home.

"Most criminal defendants ... whose counsel is being paid for by the public are not in Hawaii for fourteen days," Noreika noted.
...

https://archive.ph/0QyUV

When the judge eventually throws the book at him, I hope it hits him really hard.