BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:icalendar-ruby
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
X-WR-CALNAME:Indiana Secretary of State Announces Settlement in Multi-Milli
 on Dollar Investment Fraud Scam Targeting Elderly Adults
X-WR-TIMEZONE:Indiana (East)
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260614T095721Z
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_44774799255845
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20231109
DESCRIPTION:Office of Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales \n\n200 W. W
 ashington St. Indianapolis\, IN 46204\n\n \n\n  \n\nFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\
 nThursday\, November 9\, 2023\n\n \n\nIndiana Secretary of State Announces
  Settlement in Multi-Million Dollar Investment Fraud Scam Targeting Elderl
 y Adults\n\n \n\nINDIANAPOLIS (November 9\, 2023) – Indiana Secretary of
  State Diego Morales and Indiana Securities Commissioner\, Marie Castetter
  announced\, a settlement with precious metals dealer Safeguard Metals\, L
 LC and Jeffrey Ikahn in a federal lawsuit The lawsuit alleged that Safegua
 rd and Ikahn engaged in a nationwide $68 million fraudulent scheme that ta
 rgeted the elderly. The lawsuit was filed in February 2022\, in the United
  States District Court for the Central District of California.  The invest
 igation and settlement were in partnership with the U.S. Commodity Futures
  Trading Commission (CFTC) and 29 other state regulators. \n\n \n\nMore th
 an a dozen Hoosiers were victims of the investment scam and should receive
  payments exceeding $850\,000 under the settlement. \n\n \n\n“The Indian
 a Securities Division and its investigators continue to work diligently wi
 th agencies nationwide to stand up for Hoosiers and take down the bad acto
 rs.  Hoosier investors lost a significant amount of money in this case. Th
 ose who prey on our vulnerable\, elderly population should be held account
 able.  Our officials remain focused on educating all Hoosiers on best prac
 tices to protect themselves and to avoid schemes\,” said Indiana Secreta
 ry of State Diego Morales. \n\n \n\nThe order also finds that the defendan
 ts charged an average markup of 51 to 71 percent on the precious metals\, 
 which was substantially more than the amounts the defendants represented i
 n Safeguard Metals’ customer agreements as “operating margins” of 23
  to 42 percent. Safeguard Metals steered over 97 percent of its sales from
  mostly inexperienced investors into overpriced silver coins which had sig
 nificantly higher markups than gold coins and generated approximately $66 
 million for Safeguard.\n\n \n\n \n\nSecretary Morales and the Securities D
 ivision wishes to thank the CFTC\, other state regulators\, and the SEC fo
 r their assistance in this action.\n\n \n\n \n\n-30-
LOCATION:
SUMMARY:Indiana Secretary of State Announces Settlement in Multi-Million Do
 llar Investment Fraud Scam Targeting Elderly Adults
URL;VALUE=URI:https://events.in.gov/event/indiana_secretary_of_state_announ
 ces_settlement_in_multi-million_dollar_investment_fraud_scam_targeting_eld
 erly_adults_2136
CATEGORIES:Press Releases
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR