Beverly Hills company Oxford Gold Group under federal investigation
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Countless people's retirement dreams were destroyed by a Beverly Hills company promising to invest their savings in gold for attractive returns. Now, there is a class lawsuit and a federal investigation into Oxford Gold Group.
Eyewitness News first started investigating complaints about Oxford Gold Group in July. People transferred five-or-six-figure amounts to a company that has simply vanished.
Closed but still doing business
"Of all of the gold companies that we could've invested in, we invested in the one that was a scam," Gigi Van Diepen said about Oxford Gold Group.
Diepen said she and her husband are victims of Oxford Gold Group, adding the company was still accepting clients, even after they closed.
"(My husband) wired money to them May 1 of this year," Diepen said. "They went out of business in April of this year. So, they took our money even though they had closed their doors in Beverly Hills."
The company website was up as late as July. Diepen hired an attorney.
"After they were suspended, meaning they weren't even supposed to be doing business, they went to Gigi's family and in May," attorney Michael Aguirre said. "And got them to invest in May of this year."
Oxford Gold claimed it would invest people's money -- often their retirement funds -- to precious metals. They promised gold and silver would be placed in a depository for its clients. But there's no indication that ever happened. All these victims we've spoken to are convinced their money is gone.
Photos of the company office on Wilshire Boulevard show the business closed at the time and appeared to be empty. On Oxford Gold's website before it was shut down, you could see several bad reviews, most of them within the last few months. Many of the posts contain phrases like "stole my money," "Stolen Funds," and "Oxford gold is a scam."
After our story more people started coming forward.
Victims speak out
Aguirre now represents clients from all over the country who say they lost millions of dollars.
"Well, that was my retirement," Florida resident Chris Page said. "It's 25 years dedicated to one company, a little over $182,000."
"I moved $32,000," Texas resident Kenneth Furlow said. "And I know that's not a lot. But it's a lot to me."
"Yeah, altogether, it's over $100,000," New Jersey resident Sharon Casella said.
"I took $225,000 out of my 401K," Rhode Island resident Christopher Waitkun said.
All these people share similar stories. They say when they noticed something wasn't right the people at Oxford Gold started making up excuses.
"She just kept saying, they're going down a list," Casella said. "They're going to straighten it out, you know, it's all good. Everything's going to be okay. And then eventually, after all this time, like just up until last week or 2 weeks ago."
Taking advantage of vulnerable people
"I was recently diagnosed with stage four cancer," Wisconsin resident Jackie Nelson said.
I feel so betrayed because he knew my story and still stole from me.Jackie Nelson
She sent money to invest in gold because her dream was it would grow to leave an inheritance for her children.
"I don't know how long I'm going to live right," Nelson said. "I feel so betrayed because he knew my story and still stole from me. I just cannot understand how someone is that low."
Deborah Matthews said her father sent $100,000. Even after his health declined and couldn't make decisions, someone from Oxford Gold kept calling him.
"He continued to call my dad to try to sell him more gold," Matthews said. "I don't. I don't understand why people prey on elder people. It makes my heart hurt."
Another company linked to Oxford Gold Group
On the Secretary of State website, it shows the California Franchise Tax Board suspended the company on April 2.
"What we're most concerned about today is that the government has not stepped in to take control of the computers, the financial records, the emails, all the rest of it that are essential to identifying where the money went and in so doing, identifying who else may have liability that can pay these folks back," Aguirre said.
Customers said they were directed to set up accounts with a company called Equity Trust.
In February, they started receiving letters like this one saying Equity Trust was no longer working with Oxford Gold.
The monies were not being deposited.Attorney Michael Aguirre
"They're a custodian, okay," Aguirre said. "So, everybody's money was transferred to them. And then they gave it to Oxford... the monies were not being deposited or the gold was not being purchased, and we believe that they knew a lot earlier than February of this year."
Equity Trust wouldn't comment specifically about Oxford Gold, sending a statement which says in part, "As a custodian, our function is to take direction from clients who wish to invest using their account at Equity Trust and custody those assets purchased by the clients. Clients choose third parties with which to invest and work directly with that third party to fulfill those purchases and sales."
The statement also said, "Equity Trust is committed to the highest standard of client service and safekeeping of our clients' assets."
Class action lawsuit filed
Aguirre filed a class action lawsuit last week. It names several people from Oxford Gold Group, including Chief Executive Pedram Granfar and Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Adler.
ABC7 tried to find the people named in the lawsuit against Oxford Gold. one of them is supposedly living in Studio City home. When we went to the home to try to talke to someone, no one answered the door.
A home listed for Granfar appears to be undergoing remodeling and no one was there.
We spoke with an attorney who represents Granfar. While we asked several questions, the attorney would only say that Granfar hasn't been involved in the company's operations for some time and cannot comment on current operational issues.
So far, no one else named in the lawsuit has responded to our phone calls and emails.
Federal investigation underway
The FBI is now involved.
A number of clients received notices that said, "The purpose of this initial letter is to notify you that this case is currently under investigation."
That's promising news to these folks who feel like they lost their life savings and now hope they can get their money back.
"I thought I was being prudent with what I was doing, and I was doing it to diversify my portfolio and for retirement purposes and stuff," Nevada resident Carrie Arnold said. "And yeah, got played."
"My husband was semi-retired," Arnold explained. "He went back to work because that was half of his retirement, and now he's gone back to hard labor as a 54-year-old gentleman."
