Three separate precious metals investing businesses are being investigated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. American Precious Metals, LLC is the latest business to be shut down in this review of precious metal investments. Gold, silver, palladium, and other precious metals were sold, fraudulently, as investments by these businesses.
Case against American Precious Metals LLC
The American Precious Metals LLC business is situated in Florida. It is in Lake Worth, Fla., to be exact. The business used telemarketers to call and pressure customers into purchasing gold, silver, platinum and palladium investments. With a huge down payment, the business would store physical metals and finance the purchase for the customer. In exchange, the company promised several hundred percent returns on the customer’s investment. The business gave people short-term loans for investment in very special metals. Still, these metals did not really exist. The company also never registered with the Federal Trade Commission or CFTC as an investment business. Regulation on precious metal was not followed by the company. It also violated the Telemarketing and consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act. Now the company doesn’t have access to its assets. They were all frozen.
Prices of precious metals going up
Precious metal investment scams have become more prevalent lately. This is because there has been an increase in the precious metals price tags. There has been a huge increase in gold costs in the last year. They have gone to over $1,500 from being at $1,200. This is not just for gold. Other precious metals have also been increasing. Some of this increase is from the belief that precious metals are considered a “safe haven.” You can never go wrong investing in it. There have been many to warn against getting involved in precious metal investing. They say that it is getting close to bubble status since the costs are far above the “real” value of the metals.
Safeguarding yourself when investing
There are many troubles that can come with investing. You can get your own precious metals and store them. No matter how you choose to invest, always work with companies that have been vetted by the Better Business Bureau. Any company that can’t be verified with the Federal Trade Commission or Commodity Futures Trading Commission should not be invested in.
Articles cited
FTC
ftc.gov/os/caselist/1023212/110517americanpreciousmetalscmpt.pdf
Futures Mag
futuresmag.com/News/2011/5/Pages/CFTC-charges-Fla-firm-with-precious-metals-fraud.aspx
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