The FBI has tracked money from an alleged multi- million dollar global fraud and the murder of a wealthy Californian woman to the Perth Mint.

Pamela Fayed, 44, was fatally stabbed in a carpark the day before a judge was to rule on her $1 million divorce settlement from James Fayed and while she was helping the FBI look into her husband’s investments.

Mr Fayed, 47, is charged with paying a hit man $25,000 to kill his wife in July 2008 and fraud over the couple’s online gold trading company.

The WA Supreme Court has frozen a Perth Mint account of gold and silver bullion and cash held by the Fayed company Gold Bullion Reserve Corporation, which has investment links to another Fayed company, Goldfinger Coin and Bullion.

The value of the frozen assets is not known but US prosecutors claim Goldfinger received and transferred more than $20 million from investment scheme victims over eight months in 2005 and 2006.

WA Justice Jeremy Allanson said material showed Mr Fayed and GCB knew accounts were used for fraudulent schemes and they helped conduct those schemes.

Mrs Fayed, a jeweller, and her husband, an electrical contractor, set up Goldfinger in 2001 as a legitimate firm to buy and store precious metals for clients, Forbes magazine reported. It then moved into digital currency.

According to Forbes, Mrs Fayed was unhappy when the group became involved in suspect Ponzi schemes and tried to disassociate herself from that business. Their acrimonious divorce began in October 2007.

Prosecutors in the California District Court in August 2008 alleged that Mrs Fayed was asked to meet her husband’s criminal defence lawyer in Los Angeles on the day she died. She parked in a multi-storey carpark next to the lawyer’s office for the three-hour meeting after which Mr Fayed stayed in the office.

It was alleged a tall man ambushed her at her car.

The killer was seen in a vehicle allegedly rented with a credit card issued to Mr Fayed and Goldfinger.

The Gold Bullion Reserve Corporation reportedly has vaults in Switzerland, the US and WA. It is not clear why Mr Fayed deposited money in the Perth Mint.

Source: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/business/a/-/wa/8149321/account-at-mint-linked-to-us-crime/

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com…

Two men have been arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing in 2008 of a woman in Century City, allegedly at the behest of her husband, authorities said Tuesday.

Steven Vicente Simmons, 21, was arrested without incident June 14 in Ventura County in the killing of 45-year-old Pamela Fayed, of Camarillo. Gabriel Jay Marquez, 45, was served with an arrest warrant while in custody of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department on an unrelated charge.

Detectives with the LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division said Simmons carried out the fatal stabbing of Pamela Fayed in a parking structure behind a Century City office tower. The stabbing took place in front of several witnesses, who reported that a red sport utility vehicle sped away from the scene.

Marquez is believed to have driven the getaway vehicle, detectives said.

The arrest of the two men brings the number of people involved in the alleged murder-for-hire scheme to four.

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Cook said. “The Receiver and the Commission have made numerous inquiries regarding future access to the E-Bullion business records and funds, and we have been advised the U.S. Attorney’s office has not made a decision on when or how these records and funds will be administered.”

The pretty boy always has the best info. If you are not following him, here is the feed. http://feeds.feedburner.com/PatrickPrettyBlog

From my point of view, it is interesting to see that the government’s prosecution is based on the determination that are several independent transactions in both national currency and digital currency count as one continuous money transmitting transaction. I assume that the basis for this legal sandwich comes from the fact that e-bullion funds were collected in Goldfinger bank accounts. In other words you sent in a wire of 10k USD to Goldfinger for the purchase of e-bullion gold. Two days later that gold balance now appeared in your e-bullion account. On the third day, you separately log into your digital currency account and sent some gold to your favorite HYIP, perhaps all 10K perhaps less. The government is saying the receipt of the wires and movement of gold from one e-bullion account to the other[the hyip] is ‘money transmitting’ and not e-bullion gold account funding, it seems they have sandwiched all the activity as one transaction.  On the other hand with my rose colored shades might have looked at it like this “I funded my e-bullion online digital currency account, then I decided to send some gold here. Then a few days or weeks later decide to spend some here. Multiple unrelated transactions in digital gold.” I would have been wrong in my assumption. Comments welcome.

From court documents posted by Ian Lamont of  TheStandard, we now see just how the FBI viewed the e-bullion operation. Here is the sworn declaration of a special agent on the case.

DECLARATION OF MAURA KELLEY (FBI AGENT)
I am a Special Agent (“SA”) with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), assigned to the Los Angeles FBI Field Division, Ventura Resident Agency, and have been so employed since 1984. During the course of my employment as an FBI SA, I have been involved in dozens of investigations of violations of federal law including bank fraud, wire fraud and money laundering based on evidence of a variety of fraudulent schemes including “Ponzi” schemes, where earlier victims are paid off with newer victims’ contributions, and various so-called “prime bank” or “high yield” investment scams where unrealistically high rates of returns are promised but not provided. I make this declaration in support of the government’s response to the Goldfinger Coin & Bullion (“GCB”) renewed motion for return of property.

For several year prior to the indictment in this case, I was involved in an FBI investigation into several “Ponzi” schemes. The investigation revealed that scheme operators directed their victims to open online “e-Bullion” accounts in order to transfer victims’ “investment” funds to the scheme. In order to effect the transfers, numerous victims opened online e-Bullion accounts. I reviewed e-Bullion’s online agreement which I saw both online and in the form of documents provided by victims, which provided, among other things, that account holders could wire their funds to e-Bullion and direct that the funds be used to either buy precious metals or “e-currency.” True and correct copies excerpts of e-Bullion wiring instructions are attached hereto as part of Exhibits 1-3.

Based upon victim’s statements, documents provided by victims, and an analysis of GCB bank account records, I determined that GCB would hold an account holder’s transfer in either precious metals or cash (in a GCB bank account or vault) until such time as the account holder directed that the asset be transmitted or withdrawn. E-bullion customers could also deposit their cash at the bank utilized by GCB or mail their funds in the form of money orders or other cash equivalents to GCB in Camarillo. For its money transmitting service, e-Bullion received a fee based on a percentage of the funds transmitted to the Ponzi scheme operators.

As to the two primary Ponzi schemes that were investigated (“Kum Ventures” and “Solid Investments”), I determined that the Ponzi victims purchased “e-currency” through the e-Bullion website with the intent that their funds be transmitted immediately to the Ponzi scheme operators. I and other investigators traced Ponzi scheme victims’ funds from their point of origin, namely, the victims’ bank accounts, to GCB, and then to Ponzi operators. The tracing began with the wire transfers from the victims’ bank accounts. Victims’ funds did not go anywhere online or to a bank account in the name of e-Bullion. Rather, the bulk of the funds went to the bank account in the name of CGB at a Bank of America branch in Camarillo, California where the incoming funds from all e-Bullion account holder were commingled. From this Bank of America account, funds were transferred into other GCB accounts. From there victims’ funds, less a percentage fee taken by GCB, were transmitted to the Ponzi scheme operators who themselves were e-Bullion account holders.

If you would like to read the full document, it’s available on Scribd, thanks Ian.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/12338986/FBI-declaration-in-eBullion-court-case-filed-February-2009

James Fayed was a smart, early player in the digital gold currency business. Today he’s in jail, indicted for murder–and likely to be charged with laundering $1 billion or so.

Even the nastiest divorces don’t play out this badly: starting with investigations by the FBI, the IRS and the Justice Department–and ending with the murder of the wife, slashed to death in a parking lot, and the seizure of $24 million in gold and cash.

At the heart of the ugly dispute between James Fayed, 45, and his wife, Pamela, 44 at the time of her death, was the gold brokerage business they had founded and run, Goldfinger Coin & Bullion, from their ranch in Camarillo, Calif. James is being held in a Los Angeles jail, facing murder and conspiracy charges–and an imminent indictment for money laundering.

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Suspect in Pamela Fayed Murder Investigation

The detectives believe that the person depicted on the surveillance tape may be an additional suspect involved in the murder.  It is believed the individual may frequent the Cities of Oxnard and Ventura in Ventura County.

Anyone who has information is urged to contact Robbery-Homicide Detectives Salaam Abdul or Louis Zorrilla at 213-485-2135.  After hours or on weekends, calls may be directed to a 24-hour, toll-free number at 1-877-LAPD-24-7 or by texting CRIMES (274637) and beginning the message with the letters LAPD.  Tipsters may also submit information on the LAPD website www.lapdonline.org. Tipsters may remain anonymous.

Read the full story with video and pictures in the VenturaCountyStar