Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, Henry Gutierrez, Postal Inspector in Charge, United States Postal Inspection Service, and J. Thomas Cardwell, Commissioner, State of Florida’s Office of Financial Regulation, announced that Jamie Campany, 47, of Palm Beach County, has been charged in a Criminal Information with multiple counts of mail and wire fraud. The Information charges Campany with five counts of mail fraud and four counts of wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1341 and 1343, respectively. Campany is scheduled to make his initial appearance in court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lurana S. Snow tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.
According to the Information, Campany was the owner of three investment firms specializing in purported gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bullion purchases on behalf of individual clients. Among his companies were Global Bullion Exchange, LLC (“Global”), in Lake Worth, Florida, and various affiliated licensee businesses throughout Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties and other locations outside of Florida. In addition to Global, Campany owned and operated two predecessor firms, Barclay Trading Group, Inc. (“Barclay”) and The Bullion Group, Inc., both with offices in West Palm Beach.
As alleged in the Information, Campany’s three businesses conducted a sophisticated telemarketing operation to solicit investors to purchase precious metal bullion using purported “leverage” financing. These same investors were led to believe that they would need only to provide a fraction of the total cost of the purchased metals, with the remainder of the purchase price to be covered by margin-type financing, which would purportedly be extended to the investor by a purported “clearing firm.”
As further detailed in the Information, from about September 2006 to April 2007 when Barclay was succeeded by Global, the purported “clearing firm” with which Barclay had initially associated began delaying and ultimately ignoring requests by Barclay’s customers to sell their precious metals investments. As a result, the unsatisfied clients began to complain and threatened Barclay with litigation. In addition, the clearing firm’s failure to sell the clients’ holdings left Barclay insolvent.
As further alleged in the Information, in an attempt to prevent further complaints, litigation, and possible governmental enforcement action, Barclay began to satisfy its clients’ requests for liquidation of their investments by making payments to these clients using funds it had received from newer investors. After Global succeeded Barclay, Global continued this same Ponzi strategy. Global thereafter used Diversified Investment Group, Inc. (“Diversified”), a shell company controlled by defendant Campany, as its purported “clearing firm.” In fact, however, the Information alleges that no bullion was purchased, even though clients paid substantial commissions and fees totaling approximately 18% of the total purported value of the metal allegedly purchased.
According to the Information, Campany also misrepresented to the investors that their holdings had been financed through so-called “margin” credit. Thus, the investors were charged substantial interest on these non-existent “loans” and were subjected to periodic false “margin calls” during market declines. A margin call required investors to supply additional funds upon demand to increase their account equity levels. Moreover, investors who could not comply with such “margin calls” were informed that their investment positions had been forcibly liquidated and taken by Diversified as a secured creditor.
In a recent litigation filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court by a court-appointed assignee, it is estimated that more than 1,400 investors were defrauded by Campany’s scheme out of more than $25 million.
Campany faces a maximum sentence of twenty years’ imprisonment and a maximum $250,000.00 fine for each of the Information’s nine counts.
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