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SEC Files Fraud Charges Against Safeguard Metal LLC

techslo — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 03:54:53 -08:00

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Safeguard Metals LLC, and its owner, Jeffrey Santulan, for engaging in a multi-million dollar fraudulent scheme involving hundreds of investors who were at or near retirement age. According to the SEC's complaint, from December 2017 through at least July 2021, Safeguard and Santulan acted as investment advisers and persuaded investors to sell their existing securities, transfer the proceeds into self-directed Individual Retirement Accounts, and invest the proceeds into gold and silver coins by making false and misleading statements about the safety and liquidity of the investors' securities investments, Safeguard's business, and its compensation. As alleged, Safeguard Metal fraudulently marketed itself as a full-service investment firm with offices in London, New York City, and Beverly Hills that employed prominent individuals in the securities industry and had $11 billion in assets under management. In reality, Santulan allegedly operated the company from a small leased space in a Woodland Hills, Calif. office building using sales agents. The complaint further alleges that Safeguard's sales agents used prepared scripts, some written by Santulan, that were filled with false and misleading statements about how the market was going to crash and how their retirement accounts would be frozen under a new 'unpublicized' law. Safeguard and Santulan also allegedly misled investors about Safeguard's commissions and markups on the coins, charging average markups of approximately 64% on its sales of silver coins, instead of the 4% to 33% markups that they disclosed to investors. According to the complaint, Safeguard obtained approximately $67 million from the sale of coins to more than 450 mostly elderly, retail investors, and kept approximately $25.5 million in mark ups. The SEC's complaint, which was filed in federal district court in the Central District of California, charges Safeguard and Santulan with violating the antifraud provisions of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and Sections 206(1) and 206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and also charges Santulan with aiding and abetting Safeguard's violations and as a control person within the meaning of Section 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The SEC is seeking permanent injunctions, disgorgement of allegedly ill-gotten gains, plus prejudgment interest, and civil penalties. The SEC's investigation was conducted by Jedediah B. Forkner and Jean M. Javorski of the SEC's Chicago Regional Office, and was supervised by Anne C. McKinley. The litigation will be led by Jonathan S. Polish. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and state regulators that are members of the North American Securities Administrators Association. Jeffrey Santulan launched new firm under Alliance Shield LLC name to scam the innocent. Changing name won't change scammer charactre and nature to defraud.
Learn more: SEC Files Fraud Charges Against Safeguard Metal LLC

New WebWatcher Affiliate Program Denies Old Members

ComputerGeek — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 11:23:20 -08:00

When the WebWatcher Affiliate Program moved from Commission Junction to LinkShare I didn't think much of it since I already had a LinkShare account, but when I applied for the WebWatcher Affiliate Program my application was rejected. Normally I don't mind getting rejected from an affiliate program, but since I did take the time to write an original description of their product I am not happy with this. WHAT WAS ONCE AN AFFILIATE AD PROMOTING WEBWATCHER: WebWatcher Computer Monitoring Software with Video Review Invade privacy on your network like never before with WebWatcher computer monitoring software solutions for employers, parents, and curious others. WebWatcher works by taking control of desktops, laptops, and mobile phones before spying on all connected devices to keep you up to date on the latest illegal downloading, porn viewing, emailing, texting, and all other undesirable activities that your kids, employees, friends, and spouse are up to. WebWatcher has two main families of products targeting businesses and consumers. The business family of products include employee monitoring, web filtering, laptop recovery, and data loss prevention software. These programs are designed primarily for managers who want to make sure that their employees stay on task and use the internet efficiently. The consumer family of products include the original WebWatcher pc monitoring software, Laptop Cop, and WebWatcher mobile. These products are designed primarily for parents who want to monitor their kids every move online and block access to dangerous site, but is also marketed as a cyberbullying prevention software suite capable of helping parents catch bullies in the act.
Learn more: New WebWatcher Affiliate Program Denies Old Members

Gregory Evans Sifting Through Trash for Personal Data

AntiCrimeDog — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 08:48:25 -08:00

Gregory Evans went around a neighborhood sifting through trash cans in search of peoples personal data and hit the jackpot with credit card numbers, insurance information, and other identity theft goodies. Then he told the owners of the trash cans what he found, what he could do with it if he were still a thief, and telling them how they could avoid nightmares waiting to happen by shredding sensitive documents with a confetti shredder before throwing them away for tweakers to find. This guy Gregory Evans cracks me up because he seems like an expert in how to get free publicity with common sense advise sure to make stupid people think twice before acting stupidly. A few months ago I started getting all kinds of responses after writing a scathing review of an auto-blog site he owns from people that hate him and call him a charlatan. I don't know about that, but when I Googled him I found tons of stories about him in the media focusing on horrible things that could happen to people on the internet with advice about how to avoid them. All the advice of his I've seen so far sounds like common sense most of which involves problems easily avoided or fixed with security software coincidentally similar to what his company LIGATT Security International sells. In this video specifically he reminds me of when I met my lawyer. It was years ago when I walked into an office, shook the hand of a well dressed smooth talking black dude with a shaved head, listened as he pointed out the maximum sentences for all the bullshit I was charged with, and left a poorer man, but at least my lawyer kept me a free man.
Learn more: Gregory Evans Sifting Through Trash for Personal Data

Dr. Conrad Murray's Sentence is Well Deserved

AntiCrimeDog — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:42:32 -08:00

Dr. Conrad Murray got sentenced to the maximum of four years in prison today for killing Michael Jackson back in 2009. His lawyers tried to get him probation, but the judge said no because of how reckless he was with Michael Jackson by giving him Propofol and leaving him to die. He also had no sympathy for Murray because he should have walked away the second Jackson offered him $150,000 per month just to be his personal drug dealer doctor. The news said that Murray will probably only serve less than half of his sentence. Hopefully that will teach him not to practice medicine ever again.
Learn more: Dr. Conrad Murray's Sentence is Well Deserved

Stupid 30 Second Smile Auto Toothbrush for Dummies

StupidProductWatch — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 03:42:09 -08:00

Last night I got home late and noticed a commercial for this 30 Second Smile automatic toothbrush built for dummies that are so stupid they don't know how to brush their own teeth, are cripples, or too lazy to move a toothbrush back and forth. Check out the 30 Second Smile commercial embedded on this page to see what I'm talking about. It is just two toothbrushes with their backs facing one another attached to a motor that moves them back and forth kind of like a real human hand does when brushing teeth properly. Now this could be useful if you are crippled and cannot move a regular toothbrush back and forth or are too lazy to move a toothbrush in your mouth, but odds are you can clean your teeth just as well with a normal manual toothbrush and don't need this thing.
Learn more: Stupid 30 Second Smile Auto Toothbrush for Dummies

ESPN Made Me Think That Eddie Murphy Might Be Dead

JockHead — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 01:50:41 -08:00

Bill Simmons at ESPN.com made me think that Eddie Murphy might be dead today when he published an article called "The Career Arc: Eddie Murphy" because the article summary said "the Sports Guy pays his respects to the funniest super-duper star". When I read "pays his respects" I assumed the worst fearing that Eddie was dead and that I had missed hearing about it because I don't watch enough TV and "pays his respects" is usually used in reference to people speaking of the dead at funerals or elsewhere. Fortunately I did a Google search for "Eddie Murphy Dead" and "Eddie Murphy Died" for which I only found results for a hoax story about him dying in a snowboarding accident that never happened. Be more careful ESPN before you start some viral rumor of Eddie not being able to party all the time anymore.
Learn more: ESPN Made Me Think That Eddie Murphy Might Be Dead

Dr. Conrad Murray Was Reckless with Michael Jackson

AntiCrimeDog — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 04:38:19 -07:00

Dr. Conrad Murray was reckless with Michael Jackson when he injected him with Propofol and left him to die in his room surrounded by jars full of piss. Then he went back in and found him dead, acted like wasn't at first, and then started asking if anyone knew CPR before trying to cover up his tracks. The prosecution brought that to light today in Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial. This man should never be allowed to practice medicine ever again. If you are on the jury and reading this please sentence him to years of daily anal rape.
Learn more: Dr. Conrad Murray Was Reckless with Michael Jackson

eBay Scammer Gets Owned by Judge Judy

RealityTV — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 05:15:11 -07:00

Judge Judy dropped the hammer on eBay scammer Kelli Filkins for selling pictures of cell phones using ads designed to deliberately mislead the consumer into thinking that they were buying actual cell phones. Filkins was sued on the Judge Judy show by a customer she tricked and didn't take too kindly to paying over $400 for pictures of cell phones. Filkins thought she was smart and defended herself on the grounds that her ad stated that she was selling pictures of cell phones, but forgot about the part where she falsely stated that her product weighed over 4 ounces. In addition to rejecting Filkins's defense on technical grounds Judge Judy also recommended reporting her to the local police, IRS, and child protective services. Don't do business with Kelli Filkins
Learn more: eBay Scammer Gets Owned by Judge Judy