New indictments against Fayed from e-Bullion, the court dismisses the attorney

As we know from the reported published by the Forbes magazine the US government is preparing to bring a new multicount fraud and money laundering indictment against James Fayed and his gold-trading companies, Goldfinger Coin & Bullion and e-Bullion. While there are no results with the attorney’s trials to have the authorities to give back the seized assets of approximately $24 million from the firms in August, the court prohibited James Spertus to represent e-Bullion and Goldfinger on the ground of a conflict of interests.

Thestandard.com talked to Spertus who stated that in fact there is no new evidence and that the IRS and FBI seizure of the assets was unauthorized. The report released by the Forbes over the weekend says that the scope of Fayed's alleged illegal activities was much larger than originally claimed by the government. The authorities state that since 2002 Fayed allowed e-Bullion to become a conduit for dozens of investment projects like international ponzi schemes organized through the Internet. In addition, according to the Forbes the government alleges that Fayed issued digital gold currency in excess of e-Bullion's supposed physical gold holdings.

At the moment Fayed is being held on murder charges relating to the July 28 slashing death of his wife and e-Bullion co-owner Pamela Fayed. While the Forbes reported new impending indictments Spertus said to thestandard.com that he had not heard of any new evidence or indictments, and expressed shock at the way the government has handled the case. He also noted that the now-shuttered company fully cooperated with the government when they asked the information about the account holders and now prosecutors routinely request information from banks whose clients are allegedly involved in money laundering, but the financial institutions themselves are not charged.

Spertus also reports that now the government is trying to use a "forfeiture theory" to justify keeping the assets. He said that the government had no seizure warrant and performed the seizure of the gold only with the search warrant on their hands. Spertus also advised that the U.S. District Court rejected the motion for the return of assets, adding that the delays were denying his client the right to a speedy trial. To crown it all Spertus no longer can represent e-Bullion or Goldfinger in court, because the government claimed that he had a conflict of interest involving the companies' customers. Now, he is looking for another law firm to represent the companies.