The CFTC said the firm and its owner claimed they would buy and store physical metal, including gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, for customers. Further, the firm and Ghaemi told customers that there was a $25,000 minimum investment to buy physical metal and that Global Precious Metals Trading Company would arrange a loan where customers would finance the remaining amount of the total value of the physical metals purchased.
Instead of purchasing, storing, or financing the purchase of physical metals, the firm and Ghaemi “used the funds for Ghaemi’s benefit, including to make car payments, pay Ghaemi’s salary, pay for Ghaemi’s travel and entertainment expenses, and to margin their own speculative metals trading account in London,” the CFTC said. The agency said in its suit that the two defendants have returned less than $65,000 of the over $800,000 obtained from customers and that they misappropriated the remaining funds.
http://www.kitco.com/reports/KitcoNews2 ... DeC_1.html
