There’s Gold In Them There … Oh Crap, Where’s the Gold?
Remember back not too long ago when every Republican huckster (where Huckabee got his name) was trying to get you to buy gold?
You’ve got Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and everybody on Fox News trying to scare the bejabbers out of all their listeners so they could make a kickback from the gold merchants. They were told that their Yankee dollars would be worthless as half a haircut once Obama killed ‘Merica, but you can always eat gold. No, wait.
Rightwingers were taking every penny they had to buy gold.
Predictably, most of the dealers were as crooked as a corkscrew.
Some more than others.
Here’s a long story about one such organization in Austin. Their deal was that they would buy you gold and for a small fee they would also be kind enough to store it for you in an old bank vault at their offices.
By the time auditors and lawyers got access to Bullion Direct’s 14th-floor offices six weeks ago, there were only a handful of gold and silver coins in an office safe. A second vault it had recently rented held only slightly more.
An estimated $30 million in cash, metal bullion and valuable coins, meanwhile, had vanished.
They hadn’t paid taxes since 2010.
The irony of all this is that the folks buying the gold were also pulling a scam.
Indeed, for a certain percentage of investors, hoarding gold is as much a political statement as an investment. “The beauty of bullion is that it cannot be tracked; it cannot be accounted for,” said Barbala. “It’s called subversive investing. You are subverting the entire U.S. economy. It’s the only, last investment vehicle outside of government control.”
Bullion Direct promoted such light-handed regulation. The company “is not, nor required to be, registered with the SEC since we are not trading securities,” its website promised. “Furthermore, we are not required to register with any other regulatory body.”
Thirty million dollars gone, vanished, and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of guys.
Thanks to John for the heads up.
The price of gold has fallen 30% in 4 yrs while the stock market has risen 50% in that time. Subversive investing isn’t working out too well even for those who don’t get ripped off.
1Too bad Ian Fleming isn’t alive to write a James Bond novel about gold fraud rather than gold smuggling. Goldfinger would be an altogether different novel in 2015. No SMERCH, but a cabal of the wealthy, influential, right wingers. I can’t wait to hear who the bigger fish turn out to be in the Bullion Direct scandal. Bethcha they are siblings and not named Hunt.
2Nice guys. I’d rather have mac & cheese.
3No Spanish galleons burdened with South American gold, only piracy by a new name! Can’t wait to see what they are flying in place of the old skull and crossbones!
4The owner seems to be a future Darwin Award winner. With a customer base in the thousands consisting of right wingers…. Is Alabama an open carry state? Moving to the moon might be a better option.
5“The beauty of bullion is that it cannot be tracked; it cannot be accounted for,”
I’ll give Bullion Direct this much credit, they did tell potential investors the truth about their tracking and accounting system…
6Don’t trust your own gubmint. Invest with a total stranger. That’ll work out well.
7I used to buy gold occasionally many years ago when I still wore earrings every day. At least I still know where those hoops and studs are. I’m very good at “accounting and tracking.”
8When you are trying to cheat the government, don’t be so surprised when the one helping you cheat is cheating you!
9Gold is a silly investment if you really think the collapse is coming. Among other things, how does one know it’s really pure gold without an expensive assay?
10“The beauty of bullion is that it cannot be tracked; it cannot be accounted for,”
And it cannot quench your thirst.
So, when water becomes more valuable than gold, these guys are gonna go as thirsty as Marco Rubio talking before a camera.
Suckers.
11This is not a “new” story. The bankruptcy filing was July 20th. Bullion Direct still has web sites that work (each with a small print bankruptcy notice). Except for the one report on Sept. 6 in the Austin American-Statesman this has been a very under-advertised event. Could all those hucklebee hucksters be hoping that this will go away without getting them dirty? There are reports that the UT 1 billion $ investment in gold is now worth $500 million. Those teabaggers are sure great investors. As the pirates say “har, har , har the horror of it all!
12“You are subverting the entire U.S. economy.”
Apparently they think that is a good thing. Stupid right wingnuts.
13As Nouriel Roubini said: Spam is a better hedge against inflation than gold: you can eat it and it lasts 1000 years. Gold is, as Keynes aptly said, a barbarous relic.”
14I don’t personally know anyone dumb enough to invest in a company that brags about being accountable to no one! This is what they get for listening to the RWNJ (right wing nut jobs).
15Apparently this firm was subverting a reasonably large part of the entire WingNut economy.
Goodie.
16Always glad to see the teabaggers get what they deserve.
17Gold. Scam. Republicans.
Yep. Sounds about right.
18Psssssssst … fleecers and fleeced, for a small finders fee, I will restore your gold to you. Mail your checks to PO Box 666, Swindlers Junction, NV 89820.
19Now our Texas Guvernot is planning to build a gold depository (maybe two or three of them) so the gold belonging to UT can be returned to Texas instead of being in some damn liberal bank vault in New York City. Of course, they know nothing about building such a depository, and I mean nothing, but they think they can make some money for the state by holding people’s gold …. for a price, of course. Now who in their right mind would hand over their gold to a Texas politician, plus pay them to take it?
20I keep offering to store gold in our garage. I swear nobody could find it. Nobody has taken me up on it. Anyway, if you ddid have gold, where could you spend it?
Invest in water.
21Well, the investors ASKED for a lack of accountability….
22Waiting for the economy to collapse? The Newsmax channel must be running a Mad Max marathon.
23It truly messes with my head, how these “patriots” are coming up with ways to subvert the American economy, first with bitcoin, and now with gold.
24The most astonishing part of this article was that these guys (more than one) who had lost tens of thousands of dollars still believed that investing in gold was the right way to go and they still blamed the government. I mean, you cannot talk sense to people like that.
25Old Huckabee lives by the theory that there is a sucker born
26every minute, watching his fat ass on TV I want to shout – read you book on how to stay slim and healthy! Lately he has been sharing secrets in his book on how cinnamon cures diabetes (I think) he missed his calling – should have been a fairground barker. What with sons who torture animals, and supporting the dreadful Duggars, and the man who pooped his pants rather than go into the military, he sure does have some strange bedfellows, this gal he is supporting now, the bible one, is a serial adultress who had twins out of wedlock!