Wil" ifiif' A IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, WEST JUDICIAL DISTRICT, AIRPORT COURT THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, COMPLAINT Plaintiff, Case BEELI, LUIS ll0\? 2011 HOWARD, STEPHANIE KAY Defendants. By ,psp-niy DR 11-CA2777 I The undersigned upon information and belief complains that: A 1 Between November 1, 2008 and November 1, 2011, within the City of Santa l\/lonica, a violation of Section 182(a) ofthe California Penal Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by defendants Mark Albarian, Robert Fazio and Luis Beeli, who willfully and unlawfully conspired together to cheat and defraud persons of property by means which were in themselves criminal, and to obtain money or property by false pretenses and by false promises with fraudulent intent not to perform those promises, a misdemeanor. Pursuant to and for the purpose of carrying out the objects and purposes of the aforesaid conspiracy, the said defendants committed, among other things, the following overt acts in the City of Santa l\/lonica: A a. Directed salespeople to "get the money in" from customers on the promise of delivering gold bullion bars or gold bullion coins (collectively "Bullion"), with the intent not to deliver the Bullion but instead to later persuade the customers to buy far more overpriced, so-called semi- numismatic or numismatic coins (collectively "The Overpriced Coins"); b. Directed salespeople to turn over, or transactions in which the customer wants to buy Bullion, to senior salespeople for the purpose of convening the customers to buying The Overpriced Coins; c. Punished salespeople for failing to sell a certain amount of The Overpriced Coins in a specified period, while not counting Bullion sales toward that quota. d. Paid salespeople as much as 2,000 percent more commission for sales of The Overpriced Coins than for sales of Bullion; e. Directed employees to conceal the more than 50 percent markup on The Overpriced Coins when prospective customers asked questions on the subject; f. Directed salespeople to induce in customers fear of government "confiscation" of_Bullion and tell customers that The Overpriced Coins were exempt from such "confiscation"; 1 g. Directed salespeople to induce in customers fear of the alleged "public" or "reportable" nature of Bullion transactions, while telling customers that The Overpriced Coins are "private" or "not reportable"; h. Reprimanded a salesperson for making Ia large Bullion sale and failing to convince the customer to buy The Overpriced Coins; i. Reprimanded a salesperson for returning the telephone message of his customer, who wanted to undo a transaction in which the customer had been converted into buying The Overpriced Coins; and COUNT 2 On or about October 15, 2011, within the City of Santa Monica, a violation of Section 17500 of the California Business and Professions Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by Defendants Goldline international, lnc., Mark Albarian and Scott Carter, who disseminated an untrue or misleading statement in connection with the sale of goods or sen/ices, which the defendants knew or with reasonable care should have known was untrue or misleading, to wit: - stating with reference to the European coins being promoted on Goldline's website that the coins could be "liquidate[d] privately" and that a benefit of buying them was "privacy when liquidating." 1 2 COUNT 3 On or about November 11, 2010, within the City of Santa l\/lonica, a violation of Section 17500 of the California Business and Professions Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by Defendants Goldline International, Inc. and Charles Boratgis, who disseminated an untrue or misleading statement in connection with the sale of goods or services, which the defendants knew or with reasonable care should have known was untrue or rnisleading, to wit: a. that Boratgis was an investment advisor whose goal was to maximize the profits of the customer; b. that certain coins they were promoting were safe from government confiscation; 2 c. that certain coins they were promoting would cost the same as Bullion; and i d. that defendant Goldline International, lnc. had had no complaints filed against it with the Better Business Bureau. count 4 On or about November 30, 2010, within the City of Santa l\/lonica, a violation of Section 487(a) ofthe California Penal Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by Defendants Goldline international, Inc. and Charles Boratgis, who, by false or fraudulent representation and pretense, defrauded a person of money of a value in excess of $950. 2 COUNT 5 On or about July 24, 2011, within the City of Santa Monica, a violation of Section 17500 of the California Business and Professions Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by Defendant Goldline international, inc., who disseminated an untrue or misleading statement in connection with the sale of goods or services, which the defendant knew or with reasonable care should have known was untrue or misleading, to wit: a. that certain coins it was promoting were safe from government confiscation; and b. that the Government can confiscate Bullion. 3 counts On or about July 24, 2011, within the City of Santa Monica, a violation of Section 487(a) of the California Penal Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by Defendant Goldline International, lnc., who, by false or fraudulent representation and pretense defrauded a person of money of a value in excess of $950. COUNT 7 On or about July 24, 2011, within the City of Santa Monica, a violation of Section 368(d)of the California Penal Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by Defendant Gololline International, Inc., who violated provisions of law proscribing theft and fraud, with respect to the property of a person while it knew or should have known that the person was an elder. 4 COUNT 8 On or about September 3, 2010, within the City of Santa Monica, a violation of Section 487(a) ofthe California Penal Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by Defendants Goldline International, Inc. and Charles Boratgis, who, by false or fraudulent representation and pretense, defrauded a person of money of a value in excess of $950. COUNT 9 On or about February 20, 2010, within the City of Santa Monica, a violation of Section 487(a) of the California Penal Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by Defendant Goldline International, lnc., who, by false or fraudulent representation and pretense, defrauded a person of money of a value in excess of $950. COUNT On or about March 20, 2009, within the City of Santa Monica, a violation of Section 487(a) of the California Penal Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by Defendant Goldline International, lnc., who, by false or fraudulent representation and pretense defrauded a person of money of a value in excess of $950. 1 COUNT 11 On or about October 19, 2009, within the City of Santa Monica, a violation of Section 487(a) ofthe California Penal Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by Defendant Goldline International, lnc., who, by false or fraudulent representation and pretense defrauded a person of money of a value in excess of $950. 4 COUNT 12 On or about August 26, 2009, within the City of Santa Monica, a violation of Section 487(a) of the California Penal Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by Defendants Goldline international, lnc. and Stephanie Howard, who, by false orfraudulent representation and pretense, defrauded a person of money of a value in excess of $950. COUNT 13 On or about August 20, 2009, within the City of Santa Monica, a violation of Section 487(a) of the California Penal Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by Defendants Goldline International, Inc. and Charles Boratgis, who, by false or fraudulent representation and pretense, defrauded a person of money of a value in excess of $950. COUNT 14 On or about January 23, 2009, within the City of Santa Monica, a violation of Section 487(a) of the California Penal Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by Defendant Goldline International, Inc., vvho, by false or fraudulent representation and pretense, defrauded a person of money of a value in excess of $950. COUNT 15 On or about October 6, 2011, within the City of Santa Monica, a violation of Section 17500 of the California Business and Professions Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by Defendants Goldline international, Inc., Mark Albarian and Scott Carter, who disseminated an untrue or misleading statement in connection with the sale of goods or services, which the defendants knew or with reasonable care should have known was untrue or misleading, to wit: - offering Bullion for sale on Goldline's website with no intention of selling it. COUNT 16 On or about October 11, 2011, within the City of Santa Monica, a violation of Section 17500 ofthe California Business and Professions Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by Defendants Goldline International, lnc., Mark Albarian and Scott Carter, who disseminated an untrue or misleading statement in connection with the sale of goods or which the defendants knew or with reasonable care should have known was untrue or misleading, to wit: 5 1 - offering Bullion for sale with no intention of selling it in a testimonial advertisement on Goldline's channel on YouTube_com. COUNT 17 On or about October 11, 2011, within the City of Santa Monica, a violation of Section 17500 of the California Business and Professions Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by Defendants Goldline international, Inc., Mark Albarian and Scott Carter, who disseminated an untrue or misleading statement in connection with the sale of goods or services, which the defendants knew or with reasonable care should have known was untrue or misleading, to wit: - offering Bullion for sale with no intention of selling it in an advertisement on Goldline's channel on YouTube.corn. COUNT 18 On or about October 15, 2011, within the City of Santa Monica, a violation of Section 17500 ofthe California Business and Professions Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by Defendants Goldline international, lnc., Mark Albarian and Scott Carter, who disseminated an untrue or misleading statement in connection with the sale of goods or services, which the defendants knew or with reasonable care should have known was untrue or misleading, to wit: - advertising a button to "purchase online" bullion products from Goldline's website althoughthe products could not be purchased online. COUNT 19 On or about October 15, 2011, within the City of Santa Monica, a violation of Section 17500 of the California Business and Professions Code, a misdemeanor, was committed by Defendants Goldline International, Inc., Mark Albarian and Scott Carter, who disseminated an untrue or misleading statement in connection with the sale of goods or services, which the defendants knew or with reasonable care should have known was untrue or misleading, to wit: - referring to the European coins being promoted on Goldline's website as "rare." declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on October 3 2011 at Santa Monica, California.