e-Bullion was an Internet-based digital gold currency founded by Jim and Pamela Fayed of Moorpark, California, as part of their Goldfinger Coin & Bullion group of companies. The company was incorporated in 2000 and launched on July 4, 2001. Similar to competing systems such as e-gold, e-Bullion allowed for the instant transfer of gold and silver between user accounts. e-Bullion was a registered legal corporate entity of Panama.
From 2001 to 2008 e-Bullion grew to have over one million users and substantial account transaction volume, and reserves of approximately 50,000 ounces of gold bullion. The company was a competitor to e-gold.com and goldmoney.com.
In 2008, co-founder, Pamela Fayed, was murdered, leading to the indictment, trial and conviction of her husband Jim Fayed for hiring her murder. [1] Fayed was sentenced to death, and is currently on death row in California. As a result of the murder, the U.S. Government seized all of the assets of e-Bullion, resulting in the closure of the company in August 2008. Between 2014 and 2019, the U.S. Government returned approximately $23.3 million in recovered assets to over 1,000 e-Bullion account holders. [2]
E-Bullion simply provided a way for users to hold and transfer balances in gold and silver. The company also offered a debit card to U.S. customers, which enabled them to convert their bullion balances to USD and withdraw at an automated teller machine (ATM) or use it for debit purchases.
The Fayeds had a troubled marriage which eventually led to divorce proceedings. During the divorce proceedings the Fayeds disputed over the partition of ownership of the Goldfinger companies, including e-Bullion.
On Monday July 28, 2008 Jim Fayed's estranged wife Pamela Fayed was stabbed to death [3] in a parking structure at 1875 Century Park East in Century City, California. The crime occurred at 6:30PM in daylight and was overheard by numerous people who responded to the victim's screams. A surveillance camera recorded enough details for a rental car to be identified by license plate and for a suspect description to be announced. [4] She was due to appear that day in one of several ongoing legal meetings in her divorce from Jim Fayed and was reportedly attempting to stop him from moving or hiding some of the joint assets involved in e-Bullion. As of 4 August 2008 [update] Fayed was in United States federal custody facing felony charges of conducting unlicensed money transactions via e-Bullion. Federal authorities seized $60,000 in cash, $24,000,000 in gold bullion and a credit card that allegedly was used to pay for the rental car that fled from the murder scene. [5]
Fayed was prosecuted for capital murder, was found guilty at trial by a jury, and sentenced to death. [1] He is currently imprisoned on death row in California.
The e-Bullion website was taken down on August 5, 2008. After the site was taken down, it became a simple mirror for this present Wikipedia article. Court papers filed by James Fayed as part of his divorce proceedings indicate that normal website operations would be impossible without his active oversight and direction. [6]
After the arrest of Fayed, the US Attorney unsealed an indictment of e-Bullion and Goldfinger Coin & Bullion for failure to have a money transmitter license under the USA PATRIOT Act. Although the charges against the corporations were eventually dropped, the US Attorney's Office seized all of the assets of the Goldfinger companies, including the bullion backing e-Bullion.com from the Perth Mint and the Fayed's ranch in California.
In July 2012, United States and Australian authorities secured court orders leading to the recovery of approximately $24 million in assets. [7] This included $3.6 million in bank funds and $5.4 million in precious metals seized in the United States, as well as approximately $13.3 million from liquidated precious metals held in Perth, Australia. [7]
Between 2014 and 2019, the U.S. Government returned these recovered funds to e-Bullion victims through several disbursements:
The funds were distributed through a process known as "remission", which allows the government to use forfeited monies to compensate domestic and international victims of crime. The U.S. government identified victims using information obtained from e-Bullion's and GCB's encrypted computer servers stored in California and Switzerland. [2]
In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins.
Precious metals are rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical elements of high economic value. Precious metals, particularly the noble metals, are more corrosion resistant and less chemically reactive than most elements. They are usually ductile and have a high lustre. Historically, precious metals were important as currency but they are now regarded mainly as investment and industrial raw materials. Gold, silver, platinum, and palladium each have an ISO 4217 currency code.
The Royal Mint is the United Kingdom's official maker of British coins. It is currently located in Llantrisant, Wales, where it moved in 1968.
The United States Mint is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury responsible for producing coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce, as well as controlling the movement of bullion. The U.S. Mint is one of two U.S. agencies that manufactures physical money. The other is the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which prints paper currency. The first United States Mint was created in Philadelphia in 1792, and soon joined by other centers, whose coins were identified by their own mint marks. There are currently four active coin-producing mints: Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco, and West Point.
The Royal Canadian Mint is the mint of Canada and a Crown corporation, operating under the Royal Canadian Mint Act. The shares of the mint are held in trust for the Crown in right of Canada.
e-gold was a digital gold currency operated by Gold & Silver Reserve Inc. (G&SR) that allowed users to make payments, which it called "spends", in grams of gold, silver, and other precious metals. e-gold was launched in 1996 and grew to five million accounts by 2009, when transfers were suspended due to legal issues. At its peak in 2006, e-gold processed more than US$2 billion worth of spends per year, backed by over US$85 million worth of gold, about 3.8 tonnes (8,400 lb). e-gold Ltd. was incorporated in Nevis, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and its operations were based in Florida.
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The Brink's-Mat robbery was one of the largest robberies in British history, with £26 million worth of gold bullion, diamonds, and cash stolen. It occurred at the Heathrow International Trading Estate, London, on 26 November 1983, from a warehouse operated by Brink's-Mat, a former joint venture between US security company Brink's and London-based company MAT Transport. The bullion was the property of Johnson Matthey Bankers Ltd. Micky McAvoy and Brian Robinson were convicted of armed robbery. Most of the gold has never been recovered. Lloyd's of London paid out for the losses, and several shooting deaths have been linked to the case.
Digital currency is any currency, money, or money-like asset that is primarily managed, stored or exchanged on digital computer systems, especially over the internet. Types of digital currencies include cryptocurrency, virtual currency and central bank digital currency. Digital currency may be recorded on a distributed database on the internet, a centralized electronic computer database owned by a company or bank, within digital files or even on a stored-value card.
The Perth Mint is Australia's official bullion mint and wholly owned by the Government of Western Australia. Established on 20 June 1899, two years before Australia's Federation in 1901, the Perth Mint was the last of three Australian colonial branches of the United Kingdom's Royal Mint intended to refine gold from the gold rushes and to mint gold sovereigns and half-sovereigns for the British Empire. Along with the Royal Australian Mint, which produces coins of the Australian dollar for circulation, the Perth Mint is the older of Australia's two mints issuing coins that are legal tender.
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1mdc was a digital gold currency (DGC) that existed from 2001 to 2007 in which users traded digital currency backed by reserves of e-gold, rather than physical bullion reserves.
Silver may be used as an investment like other precious metals. It has been regarded as a form of money and store of value for more than 4,000 years, although it lost its role as legal tender in developed countries when the use of the silver standard came to an end in 1935. Some countries mint bullion and collector coins, however, such as the American Silver Eagle with nominal face values. In 2009, the main demand for silver was for: industrial applications (40%), jewellery, bullion coins and exchange-traded products. In 2011, the global silver reserves amounted to 530,000 tonnes.
Envela Corporation, incorporated on September 17, 1965, is a holding company owning subsidiaries engaged in various business activities with a focus on recommerce. Envela's segments include retail stores, e-commerce, de-manufacturing, recycling, IT asset disposition (ITAD), and reverse logistics. Envela Corporation is divided into two sectors: DGSE, LLC and ECHG.
A metallurgical assay is a compositional analysis of an ore, metal, or alloy, usually performed in order to test for purity or quality.
Goldline, LLC was a retail seller of gold and silver coins, and other precious metals for investors and collectors. Goldline traced its formation to a Deak & Co. subsidiary created in 1960, a firm that in the late 1970s was the largest storefront gold retailer and later went into bankruptcy in the 1980s. The company was later bought and sold several times in the ensuing years. The company sold its assets to A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc. in August 2017.
The London bullion market is a wholesale over-the-counter market for the trading of gold, silver, platinum and palladium. Trading is conducted amongst members of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), tightly overseen by the Bank of England. Most of the members are major international banks or bullion dealers and refiners.
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