Complaint Review: Global Bullion Exchange

Dear Sirs,

I am writing this letter to report a crime of which I am the victim. My files include dates, times, amounts etc. but for the purpose of this informal report I will not include specifics. For the sake of brevity, many details which would make this report more convincing at first glance will also be shortened or left out until the time of a full report. I have waited longer than I should have to report this because I am not sure to whom it should be reported. Around two years ago I was called by a telemarketer trying to sell, among other metals, shares of silver bullion. He had different plans under which they could be bought but I had, at the time, some money that I intended to use for investing in real estate or oil & gas interests. The person, whose name I can't recall, called back several times before I agreed to buy one thousand ounces of silver bullion, which would be stored for me at a branch of Wachovia bank somewhere in South Florida. The metals company, Global Bullion Exchange, is located in Lake Worth Florida. The cost of the silver totaled around five thousand dollars. I believe this transaction was probably real. I received statements in the mail and phone calls from the broker from time to time. After about a year, another broker, Nathan Torsey, contacted me with news that the price of silver had gone up and I had made a few thousand dollars from the deal. He chided me for being over cautious and not investing more to begin with. He also assured me that if I bought more silver at this time that the same thing would happen and I would make enormous profits if I stuck with it. When I asked about the chances of losing the money he told me that it wasn't possible to lose it all because he would be taking care of it and watching the market daily for signs of problems. I knew it wasn't true that it was impossible to lose the money but he was very insistent that there wasn't a chance for a market call. It's hard for me to admit being as stupid as to fall for all of this. That's another reason I've been slow reporting it. The best I could tell from the BBB and other checking I could do was that this was an established, reputable company. I did have two other silver brokerage firms call and tell me I was being set up and to get out of it while I still could. I thought they were just jealous because they did not get my account and refused to listen to them. I was working almost non-stop, day and night during these times and apparently not thinking clearly because, If I'd paid attention, There were plenty of signs that it was a scam. To shorten the story, I sent, by FED- EX' another (approximately) Forty seven thousand dollars to the Global Bullion Exchange in Lake Worth, Florida, care of Nathan Torsey for six thousand ounces of silver. Another warning sign that I should have pulled out was that the FED EX people did not show up to get the check. When I called them, I got the impression that they wanted to tell me some thing but were holding back for some reason. They said that someone had canceled the pick up order. It was obvious that there was something else they would like to have said to me and again, I should have taken it as a warning. I called Nathan Torsey on his cell phone the next day to make sure the check had arrived. He said he was opening a branch office in New Hampshire and I would have to call him there from then on. He said he would keep in touch, call every week, and I asked him to send statements. I also asked him to give me a Password so I could watch my account on the GBEX website. He also agreed to this. A few days later the price of silver dropped a little. I don't think it was enough for a market call but I had some questions about why I had not been sent a receipt and why I had not been sent a password, so I called him on the cell number he had given me. When he heard my voice, he started apologizing profusely. I thought he was apologizing about the price dropping or about the above-mentioned problems. Again, stupidly, I cut him off before he had a chance to hang himself. I now believe that he thought that I had found out that the silver had never really been purchased. It was a long time before I was able to talk to him again. I never got statements or a password and he would not return my calls. There were times I wanted to sell out because I was getting suspicious about the whole deal. I could not sell because I could not get in touch with a broker. When I called the Florida office, I was passed from person to person until the connection was lost. If I did talk to some one besides the secretary, I was told that Nathan was the only one who could help me. I spent many hours on the phone but always got the run-around. If I had known who to report the problem to I would gladly have done it. I was sure by this time that my money was lost. Finally, one day I called the Florida office and talked at new receptionist who, apparently did not know I was not supposed to talk to Nathan. Nathan was very surprised when he heard my voice. I talked to him then some about selling out but he said I would lose a lot of money because I would lose the brokerage fees along with the small price drop loss. He said it was a mistake that I had gotten no statements and he would fix it. He could only stammer when I asked him about why my calls were not returned. He'd had employee problems in opening the New Hampshire office. He talked me out of selling but was very rude. I started getting statements but they seemed to me to be grossly inaccurate. They showed that my investments were making outrageous amounts of money. I really do not know enough about the metals business to know if I was reading them correctly or not. Again, I was sure I was being duped. I was never able to talk to Nathan again after that. A couple of months before the market for silver fell I had a series of heart attacks. I had no insurance and was desperate for money so I started calling Nathan and the GBEX Florida office to try to sell all or part of my silver. I was never able to get any one to help me. I could only talk to the receptionist and get promises that they would return my calls. Even if the silver had been purchased, it would have done me no good if I could not get a broker to sell it. There have been many clues pointing to the fact that the last batch of silver was never bought. The most compelling is: I have had quite a few representatives of the GBEX call me over the last few months trying to sell silver to me. All of them point out that I had bought the 1000 ounces of silver and apparently done well with it so why not go ahead and buy some more and make more money? When I ask if they have records of the second batch they say there are none. If I insist on them checking the records again they come back stammering some excuse or reason (always lame) that it doesn't show up on my computer record. Many times the ones I talk to in one of the offices (I've called two or three other offices in south Florida with the same run-around results). Either don't come back on the phone or seem very embarrassed when they do. Ive never mentioned to any of them that I suspect the silver was not bought. I'm afraid they will try to do something to cover it up. Since the margin, call I have talked to a broker named Jeremiah Johnson several times. He always just tries to get me to buy more silver. He won't deny any wrongdoing by GBEX but won't admit it either. I've tried to draw him out but have done no good. He only wants more money. This is a long and tedious story I know. I can't swear the details are all in perfect sequence. I will swear that everything written here is, to the best of my knowledge, true and correct. There are many more small bits of evidence to prove the fact that this money was stolen from me with the use of outright lies and intentional deceit. It was very stupid of me to let it happen but I feel there should be some sort of protection from people who prey on honest working people whose only sin is a touch of greed along with more than a touch of ignorance. I did not ask these people to call me. Surely, there is an agency of the Government that has jurisdiction over these common thieves. Thanks and best regards, Jay PS This was my son's college money that was lost. A good bit of my retirement fund was lost in the stock market. Some was to be sellable enough to pay my income taxes which are in arrears. Over the past year I've built up enormous hospital bills . I NEED THIS MONEY BACK. If the money cannot be recovered I would at least like to have the satisfaction of knowing the culprits had to answer for their crimes. I'm willing to testify or do whatever is needed to stop these guys from doing this to anyone else dumb enough to fall for it.
( This was written as a general report to be sent to anyone willing to listen. There are many things which can be added to it. I tried really hard to get my money back from these theives but, once the had their hands on it, They weren't letting it go.)

J. haze
Graham, Texas
U.S.A.