This is a classic story with all the usual suspects: fraudsters, willful blindness on the part of investors, greed, lax and ineffective regulators, accountants making bad investment referrals, GOLD.
Watch All That Glitters Part 1 and Part 2 and engrave the plot and players on your memory for lifelong reference. (Hat tip Christian)
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It’s a bit hard for me to feel sorry for the couple that lost $400k. Even legitimate gold mining and exploration companies are fraught with significant risk, especially when you consider they often do business in countries prone to financial and political instability. If they were concerned about passing on an inheritance they should have invested in high quality fixed income instruments. Caveat emptor.