FRANKFORT, KY (WOWK) – The Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions said today it has joined the Commodity Futures Trading Commission along with 26 other states in “a coordinated enforcement action.”
The Kentucky DFI says the agencies worked to stop a fraudulent precious metals scheme that targeted elderly investors. The agencies said at least 450 people across the country invested more than $68 million in the scheme.
According to Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, the victims include nine Kentuckians, including four retirees, who lost a total of $616,248 to the scheme.
“The victims thought they were investing their retirement funds to provide for future needs. In reality, they were caught up in yet another investment fraud, which have increased significantly during the pandemic,” Beshear said.
The Kentucky DFI, the CFTC and the other state securities regulators filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Central District of California that alleges the company Safeguard Metals, LLC, and Jeffery Santulan, who is also known as Jeffery Hill, solicited investors across the nation by “touting precious metals at grossly inflated prices that were not disclosed.”
“This is one of many large-scale precious metals investment schemes we’ve tried to stop since the pandemic began, and we are investigating other similar cases,” said Marni R. Gibson,…
