Gold dealer quotes the bible, scams 300 people out of $18 million, indicted for fraud

Here's an older article from 2013, with some of the stories from victims.


Company accused of preying on faith, not delivering millions of dollars in precious metals

Nov 25, 2013

DENVER - They invested their life savings with a self-proclaimed "Man of God," who said he knew the secrets to protecting one's financial future. But across the country, customers of a Colorado-based company say they were left empty-handed and in some cases, out hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"I don’t feel that I'm a gullible individual, but we've been taken," one Wyoming man said, who agreed to share the story he and his wife have lived through if we did not use their names.

The couple first saw Larry Bates, owner of First American Monetary Consultants, on a Christian television show a few years ago. They listened to Bates discuss his views on economics and religion multiple times, and ultimately purchased Bates' book, "A Nation in Crisis: The Meltdown of Money, Government, and Religion."

"We felt like he was a Christian. He knew the Bible and what it was saying about End Times," the Wyoming man's wife said.

She says Bates stressed the urgency of taking control of their finances and minimizing reliance on banks to protect their money. So the couple drained their retirement accounts to withdraw $226,000 — incurring an additional $92,000 in tax penalties as a result. They used the $226,000 to buy gold and silver coins from FAMC, because Bates claimed precious metals were a safer option than keeping their money in the bank, as he predicted a major economic collapse on the horizon.

"We worked hard all our lives. We've accumulated some funds and we needed to do what we could do to protect our assets," the man said. "And to me, that's what we were doing."

As the couple sat in FAMC's Fort Collins office in October 2010 and wrote their check, they say they prayed with the company representative.

"There was just the reassurance that we felt, dealing with someone we thought was a Christian," the man said.

But three years and dozens of excuses later, the couple has still not received a single gold or silver coin.

[link to www.thedenverchannel.com]