Florida Securities, Commodities and Precious Metals Attorney, Russell L. Forkey, Esq.
Circuit Court of Broward County, Florida:
American Precious Metals, LLC., Global Asset Management, Inc., Harry Tanner, Jr., Andrea Tanner, Sammy Goldman, Rosalind Goldman, Randi Green, and Gregory L. Marshall (located in Broward County, Florida) Precious Metals Fraud - leveraged accounts.
An out-of-state investor recently filed a law suit in the Broward County, Florida circuit court for fraud and negligence misrepresentation in the inducement of his business relationship and the activity that took place therein with two South Florida precious metals firms. In his complaint, the plaintiff generally alleged that he was fraudulently or negligently induced through misleading high-pressure sales tactics to enter into a client - broker relationship with these companies. He further alleged that in approximately 5 months time, his account was allededly traded in an unsuitable, fraudulent and reckless manner, which caused him damages of approximately $2,000,000.. Over 1,5 million dollars of this loss was for administrate fees (commissions) and other charges paid to the Defendants.
The complaint alleges that for the five months that the Plaintiff was with the Defendants, the Plaintiff was charged a total of $1,455,906.61 in administrative fees (commissions) for the purchase of physical metals that the Defendants, American Precious Metals, LLC., Global Asset Management, Inc., Harry Tanner, Andrea Tanner, Sammy Goldman, Rosalind Goldman, and Gregory Marshall never had any intention of purchasing.
The complaint further alleges that:
1. The confirmation of transactions provided by the Defendant, American Precious Metals, LLC., as well as the monthly statements provided by the Defendant, Global Asset Management, Inc., were specifically designed to be fraudulent and to omit specific information to make it impossible for the Plaintiff and their other customers to figure out exactly what was going on behind the scenes at these two firms.
2. The confirmations were fraudulent in that they confirmed the purchase of a specific metal, the number of ounces purchased, the execution price and the administrative fee to be charged. The fraud was that the physical metal was never purchased. If one were to assume that the metals were actually purchased, the confirmations were designed to omit specific information that would be necessary and reasonable for a client to know in order to have a material understanding as to what was going on in his account. For example, the misleading confirmations provided by the Defendant, American Precious Metals, LLC., (a) did not provide any information as to whether the transaction was a principal or agent purchase and sale, (b) there was no information provided as to what the net purchase and sale price was, (c) there was no information has to what spot market the transaction was effected on, (d) there was no information has to how much of a mark-up or mark-down was included in the purchase or sale price, and (e) there was no information provided as to the percentage of leverage used to open any trade.
3. The monthly statement provided by the Defendant, Global Asset Management, Inc., as apparently hand generated by the Defendant, Gregory Marshall, were just as fraudulent in that none of the information contained on the monthly statements were accurate. Simply, there was no metal purchased and deposited into a segregated account for any of the clients of the Defendant, Global Asset Management, Inc. However, even if one were to assume that the actual metals were purchased, there was there was no way to verify any of the information contained in the monthly statement, how prices were arrived at and what compensation the Defendant, Global Asset Management, Inc., was receiving each month from the Plaintiff.
