Image by hto2008 via Flickr
by Brendan Patrick Keane
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Glenn Beck’s number one gold sponsor was interrogated at a hearing last week by Congressman Anthony Weiner, over gold sales scams. The Congressman alleges that the company uses dishonest sales techniques, though the hearing made no final conclusions. Weiner said victims are often intelligent middle class people, convinced, unfairly, to pay many times market rate.
The company employees at least two salespeople that the SEC had sued for scamming a hundred elderly people out of more than one million dollars. The case was settled in the 1990s, all the money was returned to the victims, but currently Goldline employs these same salespeople to handle some of their biggest clients and to train other salesmen for the future.
Executive Vice President Scott Carter defended the company against Weiner’s claim that Goldline uses scare-tactics to encourage buyers. Glenn Beck participates in promoting the idea that purchasing vastly over-priced antique coins is the best way to ensure the government will not confiscate gold investments as was done in 1933.
Weiner’s purpose was to at least make public that Goldline is in his words a “rip-off.”
One witness testified to losses in the tens of thousands of dollars on one transaction.
Weiner noted Fox News‘ demand that Beck no longer accept Goldline’s sponsorship on his popular television program. Beck continues to promote Goldline, on his website, and possibly elsewhere.
“I would hope he takes a step back,” Weiner said of Beck, “and looks at the testimony today, and realizes that his viewers are middle class people who are struggling. He should not be aiding and abetting a rip-off.”
Related Articles
- Gold Confiscation? (lewrockwell.com)
- Spitting gold bars and coins. (blogavenues.blogspot.com)
- Goldline, lawmaker to clash over gold disclosure (marketwatch.com)
As My World Turns 
what can I say to this, except that obviuosly, Mr. Whiner has no understanding of either the volitility of the commodities market, which includes gold, as well as silver, copper, coffey, beans, rice and oil among others, or of the facts of history, as in the 1933 gold confiscation.
it is much to involved to try to explain it here, but if Mr. Whiner and you Mary Ann, will just do a little research, you will find that if you plan right, think about the options, do your homework(all of which, if you listen to him, you will hear Mr. Beck tell you to do…..)you will come to the conclusion that gold, like other commodities is a LONG TERM game, but unlike other commodities, or even the Dollar, gold offers the greatest oppertunity for higher returns(those NASTY profits, lol).
Yes, there is a element of risk, but life it’s self is a risk in so many ways that, if you allways live in fear of what COULD happen, you will end up locking youself in the closet, breathing onlf filtered air, and never doing anything.
As Mr. beck says, just CONSIDER this, over the last 10 years, the Dollar has lost, at minimum, 45% of it’s value( thats purchasing power, how much you can BUY with ONE) during that same 10 years the value of gold has RISEN by at least 400%.
on 9/14/2002 gold spot price was $280 an ounce, as of 1/13/2011 gold spot price was 1361.80 an ounce, an actual increse of 483%, nothing, NOTHING else that you can invest in has EVER showed that kind of return over the same lenght of time, not even silver, which if you research it, you will find that the price has been artificialy held down by the “short selling”( that means selling something you do NOT actualy HAVE, at a price that is lower that the market price of that thing, ie: discounted credit default swaps, lol) of J.P. Morgan and others, in reality, adjusted for inflation, gold SHOULD be selling at around $5,500-$5,800 an oz. and silver SHOULD be in the area of $344-$363 per oz, the tradional 16/1 ratio.
now I know this SEEMS to be too complicated for the average person to grasp, btu it only apears that way, IF as most Progressives/Liberals do, you believe that the average person is some kind of mentaly deficent animal, who must be led and controlled and protected from thier own stupidity.
I, like Mr. Beck and many Consrevatives, do NOT believe that, we believe that people are as smart as they allow themselves to be, and that IF they Use the brain God gave them, they CAN and WILL come to understand this and so much more about how the world REALY works, and that they CAN and MUST take controll of thier own lives and fortuns, instead of letting the overbearing, restrictive, controling nanny state do it for them, eh?
By: bill on January 15, 2011
at 12:40 PM
You wrote such an informative post – but I regret to inform you that buying Gold was not the problem that Beck was being investigated for. You see when a company advertises with a radio or TV show there are certain laws they have to go by and one of those laws is that the host of the program can not be getting any kick back from the advertiser or personally endorse any specific product or company. Well, it seem that Mr Perfect Beck has been suspected of doing both and that is why the House was investigating the issue.
As for everything you said about gold and commodities buying – right on – good job!! But you totally missed the point of the article – which most Beck cult members usually do.
By: maboulette on January 15, 2011
at 1:13 PM
One more point – I am so glad that you have a fortune to control – good for you!! It must be nice to be rich!
By: maboulette on January 15, 2011
at 1:16 PM
ok, lets take this one point at a time, shall we? first off, yoy say that buying gold was not what Glenn was being ivestigated for, and you are right, he and Goldline were “investagated” if you can call it that, and not a witch hunt, for and I quote Mr. Whiner “lieing to, and ripping-off the american people” so, lets examin this claim, where in any advertisement, or in any informational documents did either Glenn or Goldline lie to anyone about the way investing in gold works? As the “investigation” proved, and as Rep Whiner was forced to admit, neither of them lied in any way, in fact both Glenn and Goldline went out of thier way to not only fully disclose that Glenn was a client, as well as a paid spokesperson, but also provided abundant information on investing to potential coustomers, but that gold line had actualy, more than once advised some of those same potential coustomers that gold was probably not the best idea for them, yeah, realy sounds like a rip-off to me…
as for a host not being able to personlly endorse any product, I am quite sure that if you do a little of that “research” that I spoke of you will find that that statement is not true, radio and tv hosts do it all the time, if it was illeagel, don’t you think that they would be in jail, or at the very least, paying some very hefty fines?
I can assure you they are not, and it is not, but don’t take my word for it, look it up, eh?
Thirdly, I did not, as you claim, miss the whole point of the article, I saw, as would anyone who looked at it objectively, that the point was to smear Glenn and Goldline
with unfounded accusations of some kind of vague undefined wrong doing, as you will notice, up untill the hearing, when he had no choice but to make a specific charge, Mr. whiner mever realy stated just what it was that Glenn and Goldline were supposed to have done that was aginst any law or regulation, just the vague claim that they had somehow “ripped-off” the american people, and while I do not at the moment remember exactly what rediculous charge Mr. Whiner did put forth at the hearing, I’m suer, since both Glenn and Goldline were compleatly exhonerated, that it must have been as assinine as most of what Mr. Whiner spouts on a daily basis.
As for your clearly sarcastic, and may
i say very mean-spirited comment on my having a “Fortune” to control, and how nice it must be to be rich, once again, you show that all a progressive has to fall back on when cofronted with facts and reality is insults and class- warfare retoric, which in this case is perticularly agerious, as you have no evidence of any of it, you kno absolutly NOTHING about me personaly, except what has been included in my posts here, and looking back, I see nowhere did I say or even impliy that I was “Rich” as you call it, hell lady, you dont even know my real name, as I freely admit that Bill Larkin” is a psudonym under which I write and post, mostly to protect my family from blowback from unthinking, uncareing indivduals who, getting angry at me for what I might say, or what they “think” I have said, would not think twice about taking it out on them!
Just to clairify, so we can be on the same page, I am NOT rich, not even by the Messiha’s standerds of $250,00 a year income, I am Compleatly Disabled, as is my Wife, and our income is MUCH, MUCH less than that, although it”s none of your, or anyone elses bissnuss how much exactly, lol.
Also for your information, I am a High-school drop out, although I do have my G.E.D. so I guess that proves you do NOT have to be a genius, or even have a collage Degree to understand simple economics as well, eh?(as if you couldn’t tell all that by my spelling, lololol)
So, in closing, it MIGHT behove you, in the future, to ask some about those kind of things before you jump to any coclusions or make rash, unfounded statements that are intended to be hurtfull, both personaly and socialy, A’m just sayin’…..
By: bill on January 15, 2011
at 5:22 PM
As for Goldline – there were witnesses who said that Goldline was charging too much for these gold and coins – and this is all I am going to say about that. This is an old story – Whiner did not go any further with his investigation.
As for me using class warfare – that is another talking point from Beck – can’t you come up with any talking points of your own? Actually, I wish I could invest in gold but my “fortune’ is gone so I can’t.
Why do you use a fake name to post – so you can say anything you want – be rude – I at least use my real name on my blog and I have used my user name for so many years anyone can find my real name.
By the way if I have hurt you or doing anything to offend you – I do apologize as I am certainly not that type of person. I hope you can have it in your heart to forgive me.
By: maboulette on January 15, 2011
at 8:15 PM
P.S. you might also want to asl nicly, or you are likely to be told to mind your own biz, eh?
By: bill on January 15, 2011
at 6:34 PM
sorry, thats asK, lol, those darned keys keep moving around on me, 😉
By: bill on January 15, 2011
at 6:36 PM
well, you kinda did get my ire up with that “must be nice to be rich” line, as I stated, I am anything but rich,lol, and I will admit that Goldline is Not the best in the biz, they do hard sell some of thier products, but they are also not the worst by far, and as with any transaction in the free market, it is Allways buyer beware, it is up to you to think clearly, do your home work and not let anyone pressure you into buying anything you do not want to buy, but do you realy think that the Gov. can or should try to protect people from thier own folly? it has been tried many times in the past, and it has never turned out well for the people.
As for the class warfare statement, what else would you call it? when you make a statement about someones supposed financial status, which is obviously desinged to make them feel badly about that supposed status, I can’t think of another term that fits, can you? realy?
As for my use of a psudonym, or fake name, I thought I explained that, but to be clear, on a number of ocaisions, while posting under my “real name”
I have had both my and my families life, home and property threatened, these incidents were reported to both the Police and the FBI and I was informed that after investigation, they found that the person or persons issuing the threats were using psudonyms, and could not be traced, it was suggested to me that I do the same to protect myself and my family, I have since done so, as it is leagle to do here in the USA.
As for my being rude, once again I have looked back over ALL my posts, and I cannot find any place where I have been rude to you, at least not intentionaly. tho perhaps you found the “hell, lady” thing rude, I think it mild compared to your presumptive, sarcastic and unfounded reply, but then, thats just my opinion…..looking back again, I can see where someone could say I was rude to Mr. Weiner, but realy, dosen’t he kind of deserve it? the fact was, and still is that neither Goldline nor Glenn has done any thing illeagle, and while Goldline does charge a hefty premium on some of its products, and try to hard sell them, most of what they sell IS in line with market standards for price, and both they and Glenn do tell people to do their honework, ultimatly the choice of weather or not to buy is up to the consumer, realy, what more can anyone ask?
finaly, I am sorry that you lost money in the recent trobules, that is no fun, I know, as we also lost a good chunk of our savings, but might I suggest that you look at gold again, or at least look in to silver, you do not have to deal with Goldline, there are many, many other companies out there, with very good reputations, like midas resources, or Peter Schiff’s Euro Pacific precious metals, just do the homework, its not that hard, and silver realy is a good deal right now, as both metals WILL go much, much higher before too long, this is not hype, my friend, this is fact, look up Mr. Schiff, watch any and all videos of him you can find, he is one of the most reputable, respected people in finance and investing with a long, long track record of being right in what he says, well thats all for now maybe wr can converse more later, eh? 😉
By: bill on January 16, 2011
at 2:23 AM
P.S. I hold no grudges, you are forgiven, not by me, for you don’t need my forgivness, but by the only one whose forgiveness counts, God Bless you…..
By: bill on January 16, 2011
at 2:31 AM