All language subtitles for American Greed s13e05 Black Market Dirty Gold.eng

In this episode of American Greed,
ambitious Miami salesmen capitalize on a

golden opportunity.

They had gold fever and they had it bad.

Over a span of four years, the men
import more than $3 billion worth of the

precious metal.

Go, go, go, go, go. That's what it was.

Go get everything.

That was just the work of three
individuals.

It made no sense that they were bringing
in that much.

But what is the source of their gold?
And just who are they doing business

The gold mining is funded by narcotics.
It actually uses the mechanism to

launder that money.

A kilo of cocaine in the jungle is $2
,500.

A kilo of gold is $30 ,000 to $40 ,000.
What would you rather move?

American workers unwittingly refine
their dirty gold.

And when the racket gets busted, it's
these workers who ultimately pay the

price.

The sad part is a lot of the good people
have lost their jobs because of this.

When greed gets into it, all bets are
off.

That's the motivator behind all of it.

It's about the money.

Miami, Florida, land of white sand
beaches, bathed by the golden sun.

Juan Granda is on top of the world. The
32 -year -old loves his job.

He's a salesman for the company NTR
Metals, a wildly successful gold

Remarkable amounts of gold.

2014, these guys imported a billion
dollars of gold.

through the Miami office.

Just a few years ago, Ronda works as a
subprime home loan lender.

But now he's a major player in the
glittering world of the gold trade,

across South America in search of new
sources of the precious metal.

Doug Renagin is a former co -worker of
Ronda's.

Juan was extremely motivated.

A little flamboyant, but that came with
the territory.

On his Instagram account, Rhonda
documents his exotic travels.

He uses social media to show his friends
that he visits the biggest cities and

has the best adventures that South
America has to offer.

It was exactly like a fraternity. We're
going to have a ton of fun, but we're

also going to work.

Renadin says he often traveled with
Ronda.

We would fly overnight, get hammered
before we left, land, exhausted,

take a nap, and then work for four or
five days.

One day in October, while on a business
trip to the Peruvian city of Puerto

Maldonado, Ronda text his co -workers.

Just landed in Puerto, 93 degrees.

I'm like Pablo coming to Ecuador to get
the Coke.

Pablo, of course, being Pablo Escobar,
the notorious Colombian drug lord.

The text message will later come back to
bite Granda in a court of law.

When you have a customer broker bragging
about being Pablo Escobar, that kind of

lets you know sort of the issue.

But maybe it's not just bravado.

Juan Granda is more like Pablo Escobar
than most people realize.

Along with two other NTR salesmen,
Granda is involved in an international

conspiracy to move illegal product from
South America to the United States.

There is a multitude of illegal parts of
it.

In this case, it was illicitly mined
gold, purchased with illicit proceed.

Their gold business is dirty.

It's illegally mined in secret camps
deep in the Amazon rainforest.

In a 2018 visit to Peru, Pope Francis
calls illegal gold mining one of the

tragedies of our time.

They've used child labor in Peru and in
Colombia.

They've been poisoning the environment.
They've been deforesting the Amazon.

Dirty gold finances organized crime and
drug cartel. The elements who are

controlling that gold mining are
criminal elements with connections to

trafficking. So it actually uses a
mechanism to launder that money.

Here's how it works.

Drug cartels sit on mountains of cash,
but they have a problem.

All that money is dirty.

If you're a narcotics trafficker and you
have $100 million, you can't buy a

yacht with cash. You can't buy a house
with cash. So you need to hide your

proceeds. You need to launder that
money.

The solution?

Invest in mines and sell gold, raw and
unrefined, to the U .S.

It's a legal export.

And even better, it's nearly impossible
to trace.

Once in the U .S., Gold can be melted
down and resold.

Now the cartel money is clean, thanks to
this method of money laundering.

You have the ability to hide your
illicit monies in a lot of legitimate

transactions.

You're basically using our paperwork,
the importation system, basically using

our stuff against us.

And dirty gold touches nearly every
American.

That phone in your hand?

It's filled with gold.

Gold is an excellent conductor, making
it an ideal element for smartphones,

medical devices, and aerospace
technology.

It's on your finger right now. It's on
your watch. It's in your phone, your TV.

It's in your car. It's everywhere.

The center of the gold trade lies in
Miami, Florida.

Miami gets about...

95 % of all the gold imported from Latin
America.

A multi -billion dollar importation
industry at one port of entry.

NTR Metals touts on its website that
it's one of the biggest players in the U

.S. gold industry.

NTR is an abbreviation for North Texas
Refinery, which maintains its home

in Dallas.

The company is a subsidiary of the
larger firm Elemental.

It kept the NTR name because that brand
was known well in Latin America.

In the late 2000s, NTR Metals sets up
shop in an industrial park in Doral,

Florida, just outside of the Miami
International Airport.

It was a cheap warehouse that had an
office in it that was run down, and they

had the melting equipment in the back.

The Miami office was the receiving end
for the gold that was shipped from Latin

America. So it came from Peru, Bolivia,
Ecuador.

Doug Renenden's official title is Chief
Financial Officer for NTR Miami.

From his base in Dallas, he oversees the
transactions of the Florida branch.

Renenden says he got the job at NTR.

when Elemental's president asked his
underlings a specific question.

He said, which one of you monkeys speaks
Spanish?

And I raised my hand.

And he goes, all right, now you're in
charge of Latin America.

Just three men work out of the Miami
office.

Samer Baraj is the branch manager, while
Renato Rodriguez is a salesman like

Juan Grande.

The men share a legitimate work history.

Sam and Renato worked at HSBC, and then
they went to Kaplan,

a for -profit university, and that's
where they connected with Juan.

They weren't cartel guys. They weren't
gangsters.

No criminal history, no criminal
activity, so it's just typical everyday

The NTR salesmen quickly learn how
competitive the gold business is.

The Miami area is home to a handful of
gold refineries and importers.

The elemental office gives its Florida
salesmen just one directive.

They'll get every damn ounce you can get
your hands on.

That was the order. And you get paid
accordingly to how many ounces you get.

Their profit margin is very, very slim.
So any business that has a slim profit

margin needs to drive volume.

So these guys had all the reason in the
world to go out and buy as much gold as

they could.

When searching for gold in South
America, the first place to check is

continent's largest gold -producing
country.

They smile and dial.

They look for people who are selling
gold and they call those people and they

say, hey, we will buy your gold and we
will buy it quickly and we will give you

the best price.

The NTR salesmen are good at their jobs
because it's easy when you're paying out

top dollar.

The advantage of NTR was feed and
liquidity.

We had the money and we paid because I
woke up at 5 o 'clock in the morning and

requested all this damn money and just
went with the wires. And that was our

edge.

In 2011, the company does absolutely no
business in Peru.

But by 2012, NTR imports $73 million
worth of gold from the country.

In 2013, that number jumps to an
astounding $980 million of

Peruvian gold imports.

Daily, it could be from $200 ,000 to
$18, $19 million.

It just depends on the day and the
volume and what customer we're shipping.

But just how did they get their hands on
that much gold?

Next on American Greed, NTR Metals taps
into a lucrative yet dangerous market.

It only gets worse as it comes up to
food chain. You're dealing with drug

dealers, murderers.

It's a scary thing.

In 2013, the salesmen with the NTR
Metals office in Miami are flying high.

In that year alone, Samer Baraj and his
salesmen import nearly $1 billion in

gold from Peru.

Heroes of the company.

They could do no wrong.

That was just the work of three
individuals.

It made no sense that they were bringing
in that much.

I went down there with them probably
twice. 25 times.

Did we party? Yes.

We went to Machu Picchu. We went to
Playa Asia.

We went to the sand dunes. Far from the
exotic sights of South America, the NTR

gold is shipped to a refinery deep in
the North American heartland called the

Ohio Precious Metals Plant, or OPM.

They would package it and ship it to
Jackson, Ohio, where the gold, which was

about 60, 70, 80 % pure, was then
refined to 99 .999 % pure and turned

bars.

These are OPM.

They're stamped Ohio Press medals.

I would say each of these is about $35
,000.

It's something which was special. You
know, the plant is probably less than a

half mile from my house.

You know, and you'd see a Brinks truck
go by the house.

You just didn't think anything about it.

Jackson is a small town in the southern
part of the state near the Ohio River.

Like many Appalachian communities, it
has a very strong resilience.

I love all the people there, but that is
a very, very, very economically

depressed area of the country.

At its height, The OPM plant employs
about 200 people.

It's a significant economic engine for
this town of just over 6 ,000 residents.

It's a fantastic opportunity for people
in that community.

Refining billions of dollars in gold is
big business for the refinery.

Before they combined forces with NTR in
2012,

The Ohio plant mostly focused on scrap
gold.

When NTR merged with OPM, it introduced

all of this mine gold, which is very
pure. And that's when OPM really

ramped up.

But just where did all this new product
come from? How did the NTR metals office

in Miami secure this much gold?

Illicit proceeds of narcotics
trafficking were behind this.

Federal authorities say organized crime
is NTR's most reliable source of the

precious metal.

In Latin America, right where the
narcotics trafficking is happening, you

criminal elements controlling the gold
mine.

It's a multi -billion dollar industry.

They want it moved.

The narcos want it moved. They want
their money laundered. And then the

mines keep cranking out gold.

And then if you add to that...
refineries in the U .S. whose sole

motivation is buying as much gold as
possible, you have the perfect storm.

Most of the gold NTR buys comes from
sources known as gold collectors.

The name is purposefully vague.

Gold collectors is a term that's used in
the industry when gold is being

purchased from someone who's in turn
purchasing it from sources unknown.

While some gold collectors are legit,
many are often front companies for

criminal organizations.

We see one company exporting $100
million of gold one month after never

exported gold before, and all of a
sudden it would disappear and never

gold again.

Court documents allege that the three
NTR salesmen are hooked up with gold

collectors by a man named Pedro David
Perez Miranda, a .k .a.

Peter Ferrari.

Peter Ferrari at that time had a
reputation in the press for being a well

money launderer. He's a gangster.

Peter Ferrari is a powerful man in the
business of gold.

Oscar Castillo is a journalist with the
Peruvian investigative news outlet

OjoPublico .com.

Peter Ferrari is known to all producers,
and they knock on his door to see if he

can sell them gold.

So that raised red flags because the
question was, why would they be buying

from somebody with this reputation?

NTR, like other gold importers, is
required to have a compliance officer

handles anti -money laundering, or AML,
requirements.

Compliance is glorified due diligence.

Tom Raffanello is a former compliance
officer for the South Florida rival of

NTR.

He's also the former special agent in
charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency in

Miami.

Due diligence means knowing who you're
doing business with. Who is he? How does

he derive his funds?

Does he play by the rules?

According to court documents, in August
2012, a Ferrari -connected business

promises to deliver...

5 ,000 ounces of gold a week to NTR, a
multimillion -dollar bonanza.

But Elemental's compliance officer
rejects the proposed deal.

And he gave them good advice, and he's a
good investigator. He did his work, and

he told them to stay away.

The compliance officer emails Samer
Baraj and at least four Elemental

executives, saying criminal gold mining
is a problem in Peru.

and that they need to be extremely
careful.

The government specifically cites the
email and court papers.

The feds say his warning is ignored.

Companies, especially greedy companies,
tend to have what we call a willful

blindness. They're not following through
on what the compliance officer says.

They need to make sure that the gold
they're buying is not coming from

activities. These guys and Elemental
were not doing that.

The NTR salesmen don't appear to hide
their relationship with Ferrari.

It was alleged in the criminal complaint
that actually Grande, Barrage, and

Rodriguez all met Peter Ferrari at a
birthday party in Peru in 2013.

The fact that they went to the birthday
party, I think that speaks for itself.

Next on American Greed, a look inside an
illegal gold mining camp.

and what Peruvian authorities are doing
to fight them.

Situated at the western edge of the
Amazon rainforest, the Peruvian region

Madre de Dios is an ecological marvel.

It's studied by biologists from around
the world.

The great biodiversity of species in the
rivers, in the air, in the land,

the plants, the jungle.

In addition to its biodiversity,

the Madre de Dios region is known for
something else.

The feds say the region is the primary
source of NTR's gold.

We suspect that a large, large portion
of the gold was coming from Peru.

Many of these mines are in the middle of
the rainforest.

There aren't even roads to where this is
occurring.

Here, illegal gold can be more lucrative
than the drug trade.

There are occasions where narcotic
traffickers, after a few rounds of

laundering... Their proceeds through
gold dropped narcotics trafficking and

simply started dealing in illegal gold
mining because it was more profitable.

A kilo of cocaine in the jungle is $2
,500.

A kilo of gold is $30 ,000 to $40 ,000.
What would you rather move?

The illegal mining camps are a magnet
for criminal activity.

It's the indigenous people that were
really affected and taken advantage of.

know, they were slaves, basically.

Sex trafficking brings up miners to work
in these mines.

If you have any heart or care about
anything, these people are being hurt

there.

Mercury is used to separate the gold
from the ore.

Exposure to the heavy metal can cause
brain damage, kidney failure, and even

death. Workers often handle the deadly
substance with their bare hands and

The people are poor, and they need the
money to eat.

That's why they do it.

That's why they put themselves at risk
by being in contact with mercury.

For them, between eating and touching
mercury, they prefer to eat.

They're destroying the environment.

They're burning down rainforests,
washing away the topsoil, mixing it with

mercury, and leaving behind a Mars -like
landscape where nothing will grow.

In 2016, the Peruvian government
declares a state of emergency as mercury

the illegal mines leaches into the local
water and food supply.

When I go to the jungle, to the
madredios, to cover,

I don't eat fish because it's dangerous.

Insiders say the conditions at the camps
are well known in the gold industry.

It's a dirty figure in the industry.

You know, I've never been to a mine.

I've never seen people with mercury
poisoning or human trafficking or

like that. But I know that's where the
gold came from.

On the opium website, the company touts
their responsibly sourced gold, produced

with conflict -free sources and
manufactured with fair labor practices.

Yes.

They don't care. That's obvious.

Otherwise, they would have decided to
stop buying gold a long time ago, given

the amount of information coming out of
South America.

In 2013, the Peruvian government began
taking action against the illegal gold

trade by destroying illegal mining
camps.

That December, government agents raid a
holding facility in Lima that contains

more than $18 million in illegally
obtained gold.

The raid has significant ramifications
for the NTR salesman's business plan.

When the Peruvian government cracked
down at the end of 2013, it made it very

difficult to get gold, particularly
illegal gold, out of Peru.

Next on American Greed.

The three salesmen are desperate and
willing to do whatever it takes to keep

their gold supply flowing.

They're smuggling across borders.

They're lying on customs forms.

So in almost every direction, there's a
crime.

After the Peruvian government's
crackdown, the NTR salesmen need to find

ways to move product.

Authorities say NTR's criminal sources
begin smuggling Peruvian gold across the

borders. You see a severe drop -off in
the amount of gold NTR exports out of

Peru, and then you see almost a
corresponding increase out of the

countries of Bolivia and Ecuador.

Many of these borders are in the middle
of the rainforest.

It's very easy for them to get it across
borders once they decide that's what

they want to do.

According to complaints filed against
Granda and Barrage, in 2014, NTR's

Peruvian gold imports plummeted by a
whopping $900 million.

It imports $270 million worth of gold
from Bolivia and another $337 million

from Ecuador.

The data really drove the investigation
in the beginning, and this is the U .S.

customs data. And we'd see in the
aggregate these country -by -country

and it became immediately clear to us
from this data that there was something

wrong.

To help move the gold from Ecuador to
the United States, the NTR salesmen add

new wrinkle to their playbook.

According to allegations made in court
papers, they use a local American

to do their dirty work.

That was absolutely the game. Any way
that they could get the account approved

at NTR, any way that they could get it
out of the country, the sole purpose was

to buy volumes of gold.

Ten short miles from the NTR office in
Doral sits the cushy suburb of Coral

Gables.

Smack dab in the middle of the city's
Miracle Mile is the luxury home store

Violetas.

But rather than just selling expensive
lamps and tchotchkes, court papers

the boutique plays another role. It
shares an address with a second company,

Imports. The purpose in any kind of
scheme is using as many layers and as

companies as you can get.

As cited in court papers, U .S. Customs
declarations show MVP Imports.

more than $330 million worth of gold
from Ecuador in 2014.

The company says it imports the gold and
then sells it to NTR at a slight

markup. But authorities say it's all a
ruse.

According to an affidavit from an FBI
investigator, NTR is really buying the

gold and using MVP imports to mask its
role as the purchaser.

NTR was papering its file to make it
look like it was purchasing gold

from MVP Imports, when really MVP
Imports was simply there on paper, and

NTR was buying gold from multiple
companies in Ecuador.

According to state annual reports, MVP
Imports and the Violetas Home Store are

both owned by Jeffrey Himmel, a
prominent businessman in South Florida.

The Himmel Group says on its website
that it's known for revitalizing then

selling off brands like Ovaltine, Doan's
Backpills, and Gold Bond

Powder.

If you're hiding behind legitimate
transactions with the appearance of

legitimate import -export companies,
builds up kind of an appearance of bona

fides that, hey, this must be legit.
Look at everything they're moving.

They're not trying to hide it or sneak
it through.

Himmel's attorneys later tell the Miami
Herald.

that Himmel was duped by the NTR
salesman.

In 2015, the feds say NTR sources in
South America begin shifting their

smuggling operations to another country.

That year, NTR imports a breathtaking
$722 million in

gold from Colombia.

They're exporting more gold from
Colombia than the country can produce.

So that's where the willful blindness
starts kicking in for a lot of these

businesses.

They know that Colombia can't produce
all this gold, but it must be okay

we checked with the broker and
everything seems okay down to the

Back at the Elemental Home Office in
Texas, Doug Winterden says company

executives are taking note of NTR's
shifting markets.

We had that discussion.

And that's when they said they would
look into it more deeply.

For two years, Sama Baraj, Juan Granda,
and Renato Rodriguez keep up the

charade. But they know their activities
are drawing heat.

In December 2014, Granda texts his co
-workers a newspaper article that

the issue of gold smuggling in Bolivia,
texts that will later implicate the men.

Looks like a hot topic, one salesman
replies.

Another asks if he could postpone an
upcoming business trip to Bolivia.

In another exchange from February 2015,

Samer Baraj tells Juan Granda, we need
more Peruvian gold from Bolivia and

Ecuador. Can you make it happen?

They knew what they were doing, and they
thought that they were smarter than

everybody else, and no one would catch
them.

Next on American Greed, a view from the
front lines as U .S. authorities crack

down on their dirty gold trade.

They can have a ton of jewelry where
they're walking a little bit planted

because they have so much gold on. And
then they're walking out of the airport

with sometimes $300 ,000, $400 ,000
worth of gold.

To learn how money laundering affects
everyday Americans, go to AmericanGreed

.CNBC .com.

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Join the Greed Social Network.

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page.

We'll be right back.

At the height of its success, NTR Metals
imports hundreds of millions of dollars

worth of illegal gold each year.

Nearly all of it comes through the Miami
International Airport.

The rule of thumb is, with trade, if
it's valuable or lightweight, it's going

fly. If it's heavy and not so valuable,
it can go on a ship. You don't want this

out of your control for too long if it's
that valuable.

But NTR's haul is just a fraction of the
gold that comes through the airport.

That's a drop in a bucket.

We're looking at tons.

of gold coming in. We're talking a lot
of weight, a lot of value.

Brian Picado is the watch commander with
U .S. Customs and Border Protection at

Miami International Airport.

Right now, there's a gold rush. I
remember being here 20 years ago. They

using diamonds, emeralds, rubies, being
smuggled into the country.

Now it's gold.

Every day, approximately 30 ,000
international travelers arrive at the

Some have ulterior motives.

We're going to find a lot of elements
that are illegal and criminal.

Some of the red flags, we were looking
at the passengers' behavior.

Their nervousness, their sweating, they
don't have the correct story straight.

Picardo says amateurs try to smuggle
gold in unique ways.

They're bringing it in as different
artifacts. They mold the gold into belt

buckles, tools.

There's been a whole monkey wrench made
out of gold and painted black and red.

Despite their best efforts, Picado says
these novice smugglers ignored a simple

fact. It's not illegal to have any
certain amount of gold.

Passengers just need to officially
declare any gold they're carrying.

no matter what form it's in.

There's no limit. All you need to do is
have the paperwork, the customs

declarations, and come into the country
with it.

NTR and other professional gold
importers know this fact well and

the hilt.

When NTR imports their gold, they always
have their paperwork in order.

The gold brought to the United States
was never smuggled into the United

There was always a declaration filed
with the U .S. Customs.

A lot of those declarations were
falsified.

Corrupt government officials in South
America allegedly helped the NTR

move the gold.

It was alleged, and they pled guilty to
bribing customs officials in Peru.

There is corruption, a lot of
corruption, and that's why you can't

kind of activity.

The gold being dirty is really based on
the point of origin, how they handle

their business.

Doug Renenden says that the NTR
suppliers he pays are always approved by

Customs and anti -money laundering
compliance.

All I saw were company names, and here's
what they shipped, here's the money

that needs to go to them. And if they're
in the system, it's approved.

because the AML people have approved it.

He says that his department never knows
the real source of the gold that they're

buying.

We're buying gold from, you know, some
guy who comes into the office in a suit

and tie.

It's not like, oh, this guy has a team
of 2 ,000 slaves digging in the dirt.

Like, we didn't know that.

I mean, should we have known that?
Maybe, I don't know. But we never did.

The NTR case features a particularly
important courier, Harold Vilches, a

college student from Santiago, Chile.

Beginning in December 2014, Vilches
allegedly flies from Chile to Miami a

times each month, carrying millions of
dollars in gold.

Federal authorities say that method is
common.

Sometimes it is shipped.

Using a freight forwarder on an airline,
other times it's hand -curried.

And someone would actually put it in a
backpack or put it in a rolling suitcase

and get on a plane and arrive and make
the declaration that way.

According to a 2017 Bloomberg News
expose, Vilches transports $80 million

worth of gold for NTR over a period of
20 months.

It's a tool.

It's a tool.

He's got a chance to take Peruvian gold
out abroad.

That's his talent, his advantage.

He knows how to use computers.

He has connections to America.

In August 2016, Chilean authorities
arrest Vilchez and charge him with

racketeering, smuggling, customs fraud,
and money laundering.

Vilches allegedly cooperates with
investigators in Chile and the United

Harold Vilches could not be reached for
comment.

U .S. authorities won't confirm they
work with Vilches, but do say that

confidential informants helped them
build a money laundering case against

I look at the evidence as three major
parts.

We had the data and the records.

We had the text messages.

And then we had two confidential
informants who filled in a lot of

Together, they were extremely powerful
in that they corroborated and supported

each other.

Next on American Greed, federal
authorities close in on the NTR office.

But who ultimately pays the price for
their dirty deeds?

I know the plant's closed.

And to see all those people who were
actually very skilled out on the street,

that's to what I can relate the most.

In early 2017, NTR's hustle is over.

In March, the feds indicted Samar Baraj,
Juan Granda, and Renato Rodriguez,

charging them with conspiracy to commit
money laundering.

From 2013 to 2017, federal investigators
say the men imported $3

.6 billion in illegal gold.

Once we looked at the customs data, we
knew something was going on. We began to

compare that with records we were
getting from NTR through subpoenas.

These text messages helped seal their
fate.

They confirmed what we already knew,
that they were aware of illegal gold

mining, they were aware of the existence
of smuggling.

One particular exchange between Juan
Grande and some friends is especially

damning. A friend of his said, Happy
Valentine's to my favorite gold

and Mr. Grande responded by basically
acknowledging the moniker and accepting

it.

All three men plead guilty to the charge
of conspiracy to commit money

laundering.

Juan Grande receives a six -year
sentence.

Samer Baraj gets six years and eight
months, while Renato Rodriguez gets

and a half years.

In part, I think it's a sign of the
strength of the evidence. It's a sign

they accepted responsibility.

And it's a sign that they thought that
the deal that was being offered was a

fair one.

And just how much money did the three
NTR salesmen pocket after importing $3

billion worth of gold?

According to their pre -deals, the men
made approximately $2 .4 million in

combined salary.

which they had to forfeit under the
government's judgment.

After the arrests, Elemental issues this
press release announcing they are

cooperating with the federal government
and closing down the Miami office.

Doug Renadon, the former CFO of NTR's
Florida operations, no longer works for

the company when the indictments come
down.

He's never charged with any wrongdoing
and says, He only learns the truth about

the Miami office after meeting with
investigators.

I had no idea that they falsified things
or were working with cross -border

smuggling or anything like that.
Absolutely no idea.

No other employees at Elemental or NTR
are charged either.

But the parent company does suffer
penalties.

In March 2018, Elemental pleaded guilty
to the charge of failure to maintain an

adequate anti -money laundering program.

They're hit with a $15 million fine.

They accepted a five -year probation,
which prohibited them from buying any

whatsoever outside of the United States,
prohibited them from participating in

the international gold trade.

The London Bullion Market Association
removes Elemental from its good delivery

list, while the Comex gold market in the
United States announces they will no

longer guarantee Elemental product.

It's a tremendous punishment for them.
They lost faith in the industry.

Without those seals of approval,
Elemental's business operations are

limited. They can sell coins, but it's
not certified.

It's kind of like buying a used car from
a guy on the corner, rather than buying

a car at the dealership.

American Greed reaches out to Elemental
for comment, but receives no reply.

As for MVP Imports, federal
investigators cite MVP's role in the

against NTR.

But neither MVP Imports, nor Violeta's,
nor its president, Jeffrey Hemel, is

charged with any wrongdoing.

He was a very wealthy man himself.

Maybe he just assumed that everyone
else, their money was clean too.

Himmel also doesn't respond to American
Greed's request for comment, although he

has previously released a statement
saying, I'm kicking myself for allowing

myself to be deceived.

As for Peter Ferrari, he's currently
locked up in a Peruvian prison.

Peter Ferrari has since been indicted
for his role in committing illegal gold

mining, money laundering, and he's
facing extradition to the U .S. in

Meanwhile, in southern Ohio, the OPM
plant sits empty.

In April 2017, the company lays off
nearly its entire workforce.

Employees have no idea about what has
unfolded.

American Greed contacts an executive
with the opium plant, but they decline

comment.

No one with opium is ever charged with
any wrongdoing.

I think the biggest loss is everyone who
lost their jobs.

Anytime any job is lost to any person,
you know, it's sad, it's disappointing.

But what you have to do is say, you know
what, we're going to buckle down. We

know what we've got to offer. We just
got to make sure now more people know

about it.

Since this case, the feds have cracked
down on several other precious metal

businesses in South Florida.

But the illegal gold trade continues.

I think it is really important to put
industries on notice.

I think it's very hard for another gold
refinery to now deny knowledge that this

is happening.

But the sad part is that this industry
employs thousands of people down here in

South Florida, and those people are
hurting now.

And if you look at the people that were
hurt in South America, you know, it's

the blood, sweat, and tears of children.

That's where it all started.

It's really, it's a tragedy.

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