CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A coin and precious metals dealer and his company pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges for defrauding more than 400 customer-victims of over $15 million, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. The Tulving Company, Inc., and its owner, Hannes Tulving, Jr., 60, of Newport Beach, California, entered their guilty pleas today before U.S. Magistrate Judge David Keesler.
Matthew Quinn, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the United States Secret Service, Charlotte Field Division joins Acting U.S. Attorney Rose in making today’s announcement.
According to the filed plea documents and statements made in court, Tulving was the sole owner, shareholder and President of The Tulving Company, Inc. (Tulving Co.), a California-based business that sold coins, bullion, and other precious metals over the Internet. Court records show that from about August 2013 to January 2014, Tulving and his company executed a scheme to defraud customers nationwide by inducing them to place orders for coins and other merchandise knowing those orders could not be fulfilled. Court records show that the customers paid for the merchandise, expecting their orders to be delivered according to the timetable advertised on the company’s website. According to information contained in plea documents, Tulving and his company accepted the customers’ payments but failed to deliver some of the merchandise. Instead, they diverted the customers’ payments to fulfill other customers’ orders, to pay the company’s debt, and to return the money to previous customers who did not receive their merchandise. Today, the defendants admitted to defrauding more than 400 victims of over $15 million.
As stated in Hannes Tulving’s plea agreement, the wire fraud charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. As part of his plea with the government, the defendant has agreed to pay restitution to his victims. Tulving was released on bond after entering his guilty plea.
According to the company’s plea agreement, the Tulving Co. faces at sentencing a fine in the amount $500,000, or twice the gross pecuniary gain derived from the crime or twice the gross pecuniary loss to the victims of the crime, whichever is greatest. The company also faces a minimum of one year of organizational probation and will be required to pay full restitution to the victims.
The U.S. Secret Service handled the investigation. Acting U.S. Attorney Rose also thanked the Commodities Futures Trading Commission for their assistance in this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Zolot is in charge of the prosecution.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
