As ex-judge faces possible prison time, those who appeared in his Greeley courtroom wonder why his judgements stand

Amanda Harmon poses for a portrait in Red Feather Lakes on Sept. 16, 2020.

By Sam Tabachnik

For most of her life, Amanda Harmon believed the courts were fair and just.

Save for a few traffic-related instances, Harmon had rarely dealt with legal issues. A courtroom didn’t give her anxiety. It didn’t give her fear.

But her whole perception of justice changed after her time in Judge Ryan Kamada’s Greeley courtroom.

“I knew right away he was crooked,” Harmon said. “There was something corrupt and vile about him.”

Her suspicions were confirmed, she said, when the former Weld County District Court judge pleaded guilty last year to obstructing a federal investigation into a large-scale cocaine trafficking organization.

A disciplinary investigation showed Kamada had also maintained long-running text chains with his friends, during which he disparaged those appearing in his court, mocked attorneys and joked about the safety of children as he decided on custody arrangements.

Kamada resigned from the bench last year, was disbarred this summer and soon could face prison time.

But while Kamada is no longer a judge, his rulings continue to be felt by Harmon and a host of other families, who are now expressing dismay, alleging their cases were tainted by the disgraced judge as they wonder how they can make their voices heard.

“All of these decisions are fruit of a poisoned tree,” Harmon said.

Investigation into Kamada

Kamada’s downfall began in October 2018, when a federal task force began investigating a drug trafficking organization that was distributing large amounts of cocaine throughout northern Colorado, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado. Investigators realized that Kamada had known one of the drug traffickers since high school.

Ryan Kamada

Just one month earlier, former Gov. John Hickenlooper had appointed Kamada to replace Elizabeth Strobel as a district court judge in Weld County.

In April 2019, Kamada received a call from a task force officer seeking a search warrant as part of an investigation into a suspected drug trafficker named Alberta Loya, according to the former judge’s admission of misconduct during his review before the Colorado Supreme Court. The officer noted that Kamada was friends with Loya on Facebook, prompting the judge to recuse himself from the case.

But the next morning, Kamada called his best friend, an assistant middle school principal named Geoffrey Chacon, who also grew up with Loya, investigators said. Kamada warned Chacon that authorities were following Loya and that his friend should stay away from him.

Chacon then notified Loya about the warrant, and changed his own behavior “in order to avoid law enforcement attention,” federal prosecutors said.

In August 2019, Kamada resigned from the bench. Two months later, Chacon pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of destruction of records with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation.

Loya was indicted on 21 counts related to drug trafficking activity, and pleaded guilty to felony counts of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute a controlled substance and conspiracy to launder money. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in June.

Also in June, Kamada pleaded guilty to obstructing the federal investigation, and in August he was disbarred for violating eight different rules of professional and judicial conduct. He’s scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on Dec. 4, and could face between 12 and 41 months in prison, according to his plea agreement.

John Gleason, who represented Kamada during his disciplinary review process, told The Denver Post that “everything I’ve heard about him is that he was a great lawyer and great judge who simply made a mistake, and he’s paid dearly for it.”

Kamada, through his criminal defense attorney, declined to comment.

But during the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel’s investigation into his misconduct, new details emerged about Kamada’s behavior during his time on the bench.

As a magistrate judge, Kamada would routinely text his friends information about people and cases in his courtroom, according to the stipulation filed with the Colorado Supreme Court, which deals with attorney discipline.

In one September 2016 exchange, a friend asked the judge to look up information on an individual.

That person, Kamada said, “wasn’t convicted of the sex assault but he was on other charges and ended up in (expletive) prison man … Oh yeah. He was (expletive) a 14-year-old and giving her cocaine. Don’t say anything man,” according transcripts of the text in the stipulation.

In a December 2016 group text, Kamada talked about a former client, saying, “I did her custody (expletive) and she is one strange cat. If that kid lives I’ll be shocked.”

Soon after beginning his role as a district court judge in January 2019, Kamada was presiding over a divorce proceeding, which included an allocation of parental rights.

Kamada texted a photo of the divorce papers, telling his friends that he was “going to grant this today so she is free game tomorrow night.”

Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post

Amy Barton poses for a portrait in front of the Weld County Courthouse in Greeley on Sept. 30, 2020.

Fighting for new judgements

When Amy Barton heard these allegations, it confirmed her gut feeling that something just wasn’t right in Kamada’s courtroom.

She and her ex-husband appeared before Kamada four years ago for a child custody case and “the whole time in court, (Kamada) was picking his fingernails and you could tell he wasn’t paying attention,” Barton said. “He was completely checked out.”

For Barton and others who appeared before the judge, word of his indictment and disbarment served as a modicum of good news — “karma finally bit him in the (expletive),” she said.

But when several people appealed to get Kamada’s judgements vacated or their cases reheard, they were denied.

“It seems like the courts are trying to sweep it under the rug,” Harmon said.

While Kamada’s actions may be well-deserving of removal from the bench or disbarment, that does not mean that everything he touched gets to be relitigated, said Eli Wald, a professor and legal ethics scholar at the University of Denver’ Sturm College of Law.

“The thing we worry about most is the integrity of the proceedings and compliance with the law and perception of law and justice,” Wald said. “Unless there’s anything in the removal proceedings that causes us to doubt the integrity of the proceedings, the mere removal (of a judge) should not cause us to worry about revisiting every case.”

This feels like a miscarriage of justice, Barton and Harmon said. And it has both of them, along with others who dealt with Kamada, questioning their belief in the entire judicial system.

“It’s disheartening knowing this man was appointed to a position that is supposed to uphold ethics and be honorable, and he’s doing such skeezy stuff,” Barton said.

That hasn’t stopped a group from organizing to raise awareness. A group of about 15 parents who had Kamada preside over their cases started a Facebook group, with people talking about a filing a lawsuit or protesting in front of the courthouse. The court may not rehear their cases. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to be silent.

“It’s always strength in numbers,” Barton said. “If five of us say we want change, they can ignore us. But if we get hundreds, then they have to listen.”

 

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As ex-judge faces possible prison time, those who appeared in his Greeley courtroom wonder why his judgements stand

Stats Hold a Surprise: Lockdowns May Have Had Little Effect on COVID-19 Spread

 

A man walks dogs across a nearly empty 5th Avenue during the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in Manhattan, May 11, 2020. (Mike Segar/Reuters)

 

Data suggest mandatory lockdowns exacted a great cost, with a questionable effect on transmission.

In 1932, Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis famously called the states “laboratories of democracy.” Different states can test out different policies, and they can learn from each other. That proved true in 2020. Governors in different states responded to the COVID-19 pandemic at different times and in different ways. Some states, such as California, ordered sweeping shutdowns. Others, such as Florida, took a more targeted approach. Still others, such as South Dakota, dispensed information but had no lockdowns at all.

As a result, we can now compare outcomes in different states, to test the question no one wants to ask: Did the lockdowns make a difference?

If lockdowns really altered the course of this pandemic, then coronavirus case counts should have clearly dropped whenever and wherever lockdowns took place. The effect should have been obvious, though with a time lag. It takes time for new coronavirus infections to be officially counted, so we would expect the numbers to plummet as soon as the waiting time was over.

How long? New infections should drop on day one and be noticed about ten or eleven days from the beginning of the lockdown. By day six, the number of people with first symptoms of infection should plummet (six days is the average time for symptoms to appear). By day nine or ten, far fewer people would be heading to doctors with worsening symptoms. If COVID-19 tests were performed right away, we would expect the positives to drop clearly on day ten or eleven (assuming quick turnarounds on tests).

To judge from the evidence, the answer is clear: Mandated lockdowns had little effect on the spread of the coronavirus. The charts below show the daily case curves for the United States as a whole and for thirteen U.S. states. As in almost every country, we consistently see a steep climb as the virus spreads, followed by a transition (marked by the gray circles) to a flatter curve. At some point, the curves always slope downward, though this wasn’t obvious for all states until the summer.

Watch: 0:30

Van Morrison Rails Against Coronavirus Lockdowns

Lockdowns Not the Cause

The lockdowns can’t be the cause of these transitions. In the first place, the transition happened even in places without lockdown orders (see Iowa and Arkansas). And where there were lockdowns, the transitions tended to occur well before the lockdowns could have had any serious effect. The only possible exceptions are California, which on March 19 became the first state to officially lock down, and Connecticut, which followed four days later.

Even in these places, though, the downward transitions probably started before the lockdowns could have altered the curves. The reason is that a one-day turnaround for COVID-19 test results probably wasn’t met in either state. On March 30, the Los Angeles Times reported the turnaround time to be eight days. That would make the delay from infection to confirmation not the 10 we assumed, but more like 17 days (6 for symptoms to appear, 3 for them to develop, and 8 for test processing). In early April, the Hartford Courant reported similar problems with delayed test results in Connecticut.

What’s more, there’s no decisive drop on the dates when lockdowns should have changed the course of the curves. Instead, the curves gradually bend downward for reasons that predate the lockdowns, with no clear changes ten days later.

Lockdown partisans might say that the curves would have been higher after the ten-day mark without the lockdown. While we can’t redo history to prove them wrong, the point is that the sudden and dramatic changes we should see if they were right aren’t there. If we showed people these curves without any markings, they would not be able to discern when or even if lockdowns went into effect.

The vertical lines mark the date when the number of deaths attributed to the coronavirus reached five per million people in the population. This is probably the best way to mark similar extents of viral progress in each state, since we don’t know how many total cases there were. The curves usually start to bend somewhere around the same death toll (roughly five per million people), which suggests that the approach of herd immunity caused the bends. In other words, we see in this data not only a lack of evidence that lockdowns caused the curves to bend, but also evidence of the very early stages of herd immunity.

In fact, a May 18 column in the New York Times argued that coronavirus cases in New York City probably peaked before the state lockdown began on March 22. Though that newspaper is not known for taking a critical stance on lockdowns, this point implies that the spread was slowing before the mayor and governor even ordered the lockdown.

Something caused this overall decline. It couldn’t have been lockdowns, which weren’t maintained (or heeded) in full force through June. At the moment, we can only speculate. But if this virus is like others, its decline is likely attributable to some mix of changing seasons and the gradual onset of herd immunity. Another factor, of course, could be the widespread use of masks as the year progressed.

The evidence suggests, then, that the sweeping, mandated lockdowns that followed voluntary responses exacted a great cost, with little effect on transmission. We can’t change the past, but we should avoid making the same mistake again.

Daily confirmed COVID-19 cases for the United States and thirteen U.S. states (logarithmic plots) up to May 20, 2020. Dashed line segments (drawn by hand) show the initial steep increase with gray circles marking the first visual downward change of slope. Locks mark the lockdown dates, and 10-day calendars show where lockdowns would have had visible effects. Open locks mark when lockdowns ended for Florida and Georgia, two of the first wave of states to emerge from lockdown. The vertical lines mark the dates when deaths attributed to the coronavirus reached five per million people in the population. Gaps in curves are the result of unreported data. Information sources: Doug Axe, William Briggs, and Jay W. Richards, The Price of Panic: How the Tyranny of Experts Turned a Pandemic into a Catastrophe; https://ourworldindata.org/ (for U.S. cases); https://covidtracking.com/api (for state cases); https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-stay-at-home-order.html (for lockdown dates).

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Stats Hold a Surprise: Lockdowns May Have Had Little Effect on COVID-19 Spread

My mother died of COVID-19 in a nursing home — now I’m fighting back

By Alexa Rivera

Alexa Rivera is suing a Long Island nursing home after it fatally exposed her mother to COVID-19 -- owing to Gov. Cuomo's order that all hospital patients be admitted. Tamara Beckwith/New York Post

Alexa Rivera, a 47-year-old construction estimator living in Brooklyn, lost her mother, Ana Celia Martinez, 78, after she was exposed to COVID-19 at Our Lady of Consolation nursing facility in West Islip, Long Island. Rivera is now suing the nursing home and has started the organization Voices For Seniors, which advocates for other families who’ve lost their loved ones to the coronavirus in nursing homes. Here, she tells the story behind her suit …

When we brought my mother to Our Lady of Consolation Nursing & Rehabilitative Care Center for physical therapy in January, staffers told us they’d keep her safe. Instead, they gave her COVID-19, kept us in the dark and sent her to the hospital when it was too late.

My mother had a knee-replacement operation in August 2019, which went very well at first, but her recovery didn’t go as smoothly as we anticipated. A few months later, we decided she needed in-patient care and admitted her to Our Lady of Consolation. We were initially impressed by a large sign in their lobby stating that it “was the best nursing home on Long Island.” This gave us a false sense of security as we wanted nothing but the best for our mom.

She was supposed to come home by mid-February. But as her discharge dragged on, the state locked down to stop the spread of the coronavirus and my mother was forced to stay where she was. Two weeks later, she was telling us she had a fever. She said she had body aches, diarrhea. Attendants at the nursing home told me and my sister, Vivian, “We’re checking everyone’s temperature. Your mother is healthy.” Shortly after that, my mother couldn’t talk. The next few days, whenever we called her, we couldn’t get through. When Vivian reached my mother’s social worker at the nursing home, she was told, “Your mother is fine. I asked your mother if she wanted to talk to you, and she said no.”

That’s when we knew something was wrong. My mother always wanted to talk to us.

Author Alexa Rivera with her mother, Ana Celia Martinez, on her 70th birthday.Courtesy of the family

A few days later, the nursing home tried to discharge her. The medical director said, “I can send your mother home with an oxygen tank.”

I said, “My mother didn’t go there with an oxygen tank. You’re going to find out what’s wrong with her.”

He said, “You want us to take her to the hospital?” I said yes.

That night they sent her to the Good Samaritan Hospital, which is just 50 feet away from the nursing facility. By the next morning my mother had a collapsed lung, and the day after her kidneys failed. That night, we got a call from the attending doctors at the ICU, who told us our mother had died because of COVID.

Hearing that, I just broke down. I collapsed on the floor, crying. I begged God to take me instead.

Later I found out that Gov. Cuomo had mandated state nursing homes take patients from hospitals, even without testing them for COVID. Our Lady of Consolation had been a revolving door; so far, they have reported 40 deaths due to COVID.

In short, my mother died because Cuomo wanted to free up hospital beds. But he had the USS Comfort and the Jacob Javits Center for COVID-positive patients — why didn’t he send them there?

In June, my sister and I hired an attorney, who found out that Our Lady of Consolation has been cited more than 30 times for negligence and other violations, including the failure to properly maintain an infection prevention and control program, as recently as September 2019. We immediately filed a lawsuit against the nursing home at the Brooklyn Supreme Court. [A spokesperson for Our Lady of Consolation told The Post in an e-mail, “We cannot comment on pending litigation or the care provided to any individual. Catholic Health Services and Our Lady of Consolation Nursing & Rehabilitative Care Center are dedicated to delivering high quality, compassionate care which is integral to our mission. We strongly deny any improper treatment.”]

Alexa Rivera (left) and her sister, Vivian, have started a Facebook group, Voices for Seniors, encouraging others who’ve lost loved ones to COVID in nursing homes to advocate for their rights.

Vivian and I have now started a Facebook page called Voices For Seniors, encouraging others who’ve lost loved ones to COVID in nursing homes to advocate for their rights. So far, we’ve participated in a few legislative hearings and held a few rallies, and our group is almost 4,000-strong, with state chapters in New Jersey, Arizona and Michigan. We also created a Spanish chapter called Voces Para Ancianos.

We’re seeking reform for all seniors, including veterans who died in droves. We also want to know the actual count of nursing-home deaths across New York state. They’re still saying 6,600, but we know it’s much more. Our families deserve this information. No amount of money will bring my mother back. What I want is accountability.

Gov. Cuomo insisted on sending COVID-positive patients into nursing homes — a move that he himself described as “fire to dry grass.” Cuomo’s mandate left a path of destruction, broken hearts and broken families that will never be the same. He has failed us, he has failed the elderly who voted for him, and there has to be some responsibility for that.

I feel robbed of my mother. Her grandchildren loved her. She played video games with my nephews, she played princess dress-up with my niece, she played cards and did puzzles with all of us. I know she had more life to live. And she would still be here if the nursing home had protected her — rather than exposing her to a fatal disease while not doing enough to save her.

 

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My mother died of COVID-19 in a nursing home — now I’m fighting back

New Florida law kicks off local review of elderly abuse deaths

 by Dan Scanlan

A group of prosecutors, medical experts, elder care providers and others took their first step Friday to officially investigating senior citizen abuse deaths with the backing of a new state law.

The State Attorney’s Office kicked off the first meeting of the Elder Abuse Fatality Review Team at the Duval County Courthouse, many members meeting via video conference. The members named Duval County Judge Gary Flower and ElderSource CEO Linda Levin as co-chairs.

Approved by the Legislature and signed into law in June, the legislation calls for the state attorney of each circuit to initiate an elder abuse fatality review team in his or her judicial circuit. Closed State Attorney's Office cases of elder fatalities caused by abuse or neglect will be provided to the team so it can make policy recommendations to help prevent future similar cases.

"It can be a walk-in that you looked at and said there's not enough evidence here," Flower said. "The team will look at those files and mine it for information to allow us to review, without blaming and shaming. ... We can look at the closed files and see, as a community, how we can do better and find gaps in services."

Senate Minority Leader Sen. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, was the bill sponsor. She said she is "extremely excited" that it is finally law and that her district has initiated a team. It was "four years in the making," she said.

"Isn't that ridiculous?" Gibson said. "We had to fight against the nursing homes, then the trial lawyers and everyone else thinking we were going to come into their facilities and inspect them and start charging them with criminal actions. But it's not about that. It's about our seniors." 

The National Council on Aging says about 1-in-10 Americans aged 60-plus has experienced some form of elder abuse, as high as 5 million abused victims each year. A recent USA TODAY Network - Florida investigation focused on 54 nursing home deaths from 2013 through 2017 where state inspectors cited neglect and mistreatment as factors. It found Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration rarely took action and often didn’t investigate the deaths.

ElderSource, the Women's Center and other agencies worked with Gibson to lobby for the bill's passage.

"These reviews will seek to identify potential problems in the delivery of services to our elderly that may have contributed to the death," State Attorney Melissa Nelson said. "This work could result in policy and legal recommendations to improve the overall system of care."

The judge agreed, saying the team will not be an "investigative arm" of the State Attorney's Office but rather make recommendations.

The teams must submit information on elder abuse-related fatalities to Florida's Department of Elder Affairs by . Each Nov. 1 the teams must summarize their findings and recommendations of the review to the governor, head of the state House and Senate and the Department of Children and Families.

The approved bill allows for creation of a fatality review team in each of Florida's 20 judicial circuits, Gibson said. The teams will be made up of volunteer members from law enforcement, medical examiner’s offices, agencies on aging, the state’s Long-Term Care Ombudsman program and the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, among others.

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New Florida law kicks off local review of elderly abuse deaths

Texas long-term care facilities reopen to essential caregiver visits

by Irene Cruz

CANYON LAKE, Texas - For the past eight months, Jeanette Christensen of Canyon Lake, Texas has only been able to see her husband Steve through a glass window.

Steve, her husband of 26 years, has a rare form of dementia. He is a disabled Air Force veteran at the Frank M. Tejeda Texas State Veteran's Home in Floresville, where no visitors have been allowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"That keeps him locked in and me locked out," says Jeanette Christensen.

Governor Abbott and the Texas Human Health Services Commission only began allowing outside visits a month ago, a process they called Phase 1.

"They are dying by the same rules that are designed to keep them safe. There's got to be logical compromise," says Christensen.

Christensen says the isolation has been incredibly detrimental to Steve's health. Prior to the pandemic, she was able to take Steve out for a drive and a meal every week. Steve is able to stand, walk, and perform certain tasks. However, due to dementia, he's also prone to confusion, memory impairment and difficulty with personal care.

"I'm seeing a large decline," says Christensen. "They are losing their will to live. What they feel like is that they're not having personal contact with anyone."

It's an issue that has been commonly seen across the state. Tina Hill out of Atlanta, Texas is also struggling. Her father is a double amputee at a nursing home.

"He is just severely depressed," says Hill. "He just had a mental break down. He was crying, saying how much he missed his family. He was just giving up if he couldn't spend time with his family anymore."

Christensen and Hill are both part of a Facebook group called "Texas Caregivers for Compromise - Because Isolation Kills, Too", an advocacy group that has been pushing for visitation changes in long-term care facilities. It is open to the public and has nearly 3,000 members.

Many have also signed a petition these past months to open Texas nursing homes and assisted living centers. It has nearly 24,000 signatures.

In addition, members of the Facebook group have been creating and posting signs in College Station that say "Isolation Kills Too!"

After months of hoping for change, family members are finally now seeing change. Last Friday, Governor Abbott announced long-term care facilities would be opening back up to visitors starting Thursday, September 24, 2020. However, formal guidelines from the Texas Human Health and Services Commission only recently came down this past Wednesday.

The guidelines for nursing facilities differ from those for assisted living facilities. There are a few notable details:

• Nursing facilities are required to allow visits from two designated essential caregivers per resident. This is voluntary for assisted living facilities.
• Facilities must be approved by Texas Human Health Services for visitation.
• Nursing homes are expected to contain any positive cases to an isolated unit.
• If a nursing facility has COVID-19 positive cases, they are still required to allow essential caregivers in. This is optional for assisted living facilities in this situation.
• Any residents with COVID-19 are not allowed to have visitors unless they are at the end of their life.
• All visitors are expected to schedule their visits, must wear PPE, and must show proof of negative testing.

You can find more details from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission here:

• NURSING FACILITY GUIDELINES
• ASSISTED LIVING FACILITY GUIDELINES
  

 

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Texas long-term care facilities reopen to essential caregiver visits

New Florida law includes stricter penalties for ripping off military veterans

Perpetrators would also have to pay all court costs and restitution associated with each of their victims

 

By Nick Givas

 

A series of Florida laws passed during this year's legislative session went into effect on Thursday, one of which makes it a felony to attempt to financially swindle a veteran out of $50,000 or more.

 

This bill amends the White Collar Crime Victim Protection Act to say someone "commits an aggravated white-collar crime if he or she obtains or attempts to obtain $50,000 or more by committing at least two associated white-collar crimes against 10 or more veterans."

The action will now be considered a first-degree felony, "ranked at a level 9 out of 10 possible levels for incarceration purposes on the offense severity ranking chart of the Criminal Punishment Code."

People convicted of breaking the new law would also have to pay court costs and restitution associated with each of their victims.

The court may also order payment of a $500,000 fine, or "double the value of the pecuniary gain or loss, whichever is greater."

The bill had similar protections for senior citizens within the text, in an effort to discourage the financially fraudulent schemes often carried out against the elderly.

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New Florida law includes stricter penalties for ripping off military veterans

Muskogee woman enters plea to neglect, financial exploitation by caretaker

By Elizabeth Ridenour

Terri Lynn Russell

A Muskogee woman charged with neglect by caretaker and financial exploitation by caretaker entered a blind plea, and her son, who also was charged, pleaded guilty to financial exploitation by caretaker.

Terri Lynn Russell, 60, entered a blind plea in Muskogee County District Court on Wednesday, and she will be sentenced at 9 a.m. Jan. 6.

A blind plea is when a person charged does not have a sentencing agreement with the state, and they essentially plead guilty and let the judge determine their sentence.

Scott Allen Russell

Russell's son, Scott Allen Russell, 32, pleaded guilty to one of the two charges.

"We let him plead to count two, financial exploitation by caretaker, and he got five years deferred," said Orvil Loge, Muskogee County District Attorney.

The charge of neglect by caretaker against Scott Russell was dismissed, he said.

The victim, who was 81 years old at the time of the Russells' arrest, was bedridden and neglected.

"The house was horrendous, and they just failed to take care of her properly," Loge said.

The mother and son had also been charged with spending the woman's money.

"The victim receives a monthly income and the suspects have access," court documents state. "The elderly victim was found to be living in deplorable circumstances. The victim is unable to speak and is confined to a bed."

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Muskogee woman enters plea to neglect, financial exploitation by caretaker

Trio of Precious Metals Dealers Accused of $185 Million Scam Targeting Seniors

by DAVID LEE

DALLAS (CN) — The federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission and 30 states announced Friday a lawsuit against three Los Angeles-based precious metal dealers for allegedly scamming over 1,300 elderly investors in a $185 million scam where they were charged 100% to over 300% more than market prices.

The securities regulators sued Metals.com operator TMTE Inc., Chase Metals LLC, Chase Metals Inc., Barrick Capital Inc. and principals Lucas Asher and Simon Batashvili on Sept. 22. Unsealed Friday afternoon, the complaint lists 30 counts including state securities fraud, commodities fraud, investment adviser fraud and financial exploitation of the elderly. The plaintiffs claim the scam dates to 2017 and involved convincing the elderly victims to transfer their retirement savings to self-directed individual retirement accounts to purchase precious metals.

According to the plaintiffs, nearly every investor “lost the vast majority of their funds” on deposit with the defendants.

“Defendants falsely told investors who questioned the grossly inflated cost of the precious metals bullion after purchase that the precious metals bullion were exclusive and collectible numismatic or semi-numismatic precious metals that carried a premium far above the base melt value of the precious metals bullion.”

The plaintiffs claim Metals.com marked up the price of one-half ounce Silver Royal Canadian Mint Polar Bear bullion by 213% over spot prices, constituting 58% of sales for over $102.4 million. (page 14) They allege a 120% charge over spot prices for one-tenth ounce Gold Royal Canadian Mint Polar Bear bullion, constituting 15% of sales for over $31.2 million.

Metals.com also failed to disclose to investors that it was subject to at least 12 separate state enforcement actions and disciplinary proceedings dating back to 2019, the plaintiffs say.

Barrick Capital and Chase Metals did not immediately respond to email messages requesting comment Friday afternoon. Metals.com defended the company’s pricing, stating it sells bullion for cheaper than the U.S. Mint does on its website.

“Metals.com has customers from all ages, even as low as 18 years old, and from all political leanings, who enjoy physical coins delivered to them,” the company said in a statement. “We have among the lowest spreads on retail and wholesale prices in our industry between 1% and 29%.”

The defendants’ assets are currently frozen by U.S. District Judge David Godbey, who entered a restraining order Tuesday to permit the plaintiffs to inspect the defendant’s records. He also appointed a receiver to take control of Metals.com, Barrick and relief defendant Tower Equity, in addition to the assets of Asher and Batashvili.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton blasted the defendants Friday for flouting a 2019 agreement with the state to refund 84 investors’ money and strengthen company compliance and training.

“I will not stand by as these companies use deceptive tactics and underhanded attempts to siphon cash from Texans who seek only to wisely invest their hard-earned retirement savings,” Paxton said in a statement. “The abuse of hardworking Texans, particularly senior citizens who look forward to a secure retirement, cannot be allowed to continue. Companies that take advantage of Texans will be held accountable.”

The CFTC said the lawsuit is the “largest joint filing” in the agency’s history with state regulators and the first since a 2018 information-sharing agreement with the North American Securities Administrators Association — a group of state and provincial securities regulators in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“This case highlights just how geographically broad commodities fraud can be in our rapidly-evolving financial markets and how important it is for regulators at all levels of government to work together to pursue bad actors and protect market participants,” said CFTC chairman Heath P. Tarbert in a statement.

 

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Trio of Precious Metals Dealers Accused of $185 Million Scam Targeting Seniors

Caregivers relieved, but cautious about eased restrictions for care facilities

By Lucinda Breeding

Amber Reynolds

For the families of Texans living in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to lift restrictions on visitation came not a moment too soon.

“Certainly it’s been difficult, regardless of what the level is with your abilities,” said Mike Danks, president of the Denton State Supported Living Center Family Association.

Danks and his wife haven’t seen their adult daughter, whom they preferred not to name publicly, since the first week of March. She has severe autism, and the Danks found the private homes inadequate to care for her. Without proper supervision and a careful medication schedule, their daughter has a tendency to have violent outbursts. The Danks said they found DSSLC a better fit.

Like other Texas families with loved ones in care facilities, the Danks have had to make do with video chats. Their daughter will interact by phone for a short time, and is accustomed to video calls with her grandparents.

“If you’ve got family and you can’t visit them, it’s difficult,” Danks said. “It’s been difficult for us because we haven’t been able to visit her. And it’s difficult because we haven’t been able to see mom and dad, either. I think it’s tough across the board.”

As of Thursday, Abbott’s orders allowed families to designate up to two essential family caregivers to get the necessary training to safely go inside a facility for a scheduled visit. The order allows the designated caregivers to enter the resident’s room.

The order is the first to allow designated caregivers this degree of access “to help ensure their loved one’s physical, social, and emotional needs are being met” since the state-mandated lockdown in March.

Designated caregivers don’t have to practice physical distancing, but only one caregiver can visit a resident at a time.

Angela Biggs made sure she had a negative COVID-19 test, which is required along with personal protection equipment training, so she could see her daughter on Thursday. She wore safety glasses and a mask. She arrived at the center with flowers and cupcakes.

“She definitely knew it was me,” said Biggs, whose daughter, Amber Reynolds, 29, has lived since at the center since 2014. Amber suffered a brain injury at birth and, after years of seeking treatment, was diagnosed with severe mental retardation and severe bipolar disorder with psychosis.

“I used that moment. I looked at Amber and I said ‘Amber, look at me eye-to-eye. I thought about you and prayed for you every day.’ And I made her say ‘day.’ I told her ‘I couldn’t come in, Amber.’”

Biggs said she was careful not to mention the staff, whom she praises and says give her daughter love and care. She didn’t want to risk Amber getting angry at the men and women who have taken care of her throughout seven months of lockdown. In March, the center was hit hard by the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Biggs said she was able to give her daughter the flowers — Amber loves yellow, and grinned over the bright, mostly yellow bouquet. The staff had to inspect the cupcakes to comply with pandemic health and safety rules.

Biggs could only stay for an hour and a half. She spent the short time chatting with her daughter, trimming her nails and inspecting her room for clues about how Amber fared without consistent, face-to-face contact with her mother.

“She’s not sleeping in her bed,” Biggs said. “She’s been sleeping on her couch. She’s not keeping warm. I can just tell this has been hard on her.”

Olivia Lilley and her husband, Bryan, have been caring for Bryan’s 88-year-old mother, Marylin, since she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease years ago. Marilyn lived next door to her son just outside of Aubrey for years — until her disease progressed to the point when round-the-clock supervision was needed.

In 2012, the Lilleys moved Marilyn into Willowbend Assisted Living & Memory Care in Denton. Olivia said her mother is still in the assisted living portion of the facility, where she has her own room. Marilyn’s condition causes her to self-isolate, and her memory seems to last for less than a minute. Lilley said she and her husband visited almost daily before the pandemic. Bryan works for Fox Sports covering the NFL, and when he travels for work Olivia takes over her mother-in-law’s care.

Olivia said her family couldn’t do without the love and care of the staff and director of Willowbend.

“They’re doing absolutely everything they can,” Olivia said. “We know that. Their hands are tied by the governor’s orders. It’s just so frustrating, and back at the end of August Byran and I were at the end or our rope. We were thinking about breaking her out.”

The Lilleys had good reason to be alarmed. Willowbend decided to close its dining room to protect vulnerable residents. The residents suddenly had to stay in their rooms at all times.

Olivia was glad she and her husband had mounted a camera in the living area of her mother’s room. But what she saw was frightening. Marilyn didn’t seem to understand her meals were being brought to the room. She wasn’t eating, and eventually, she was sitting on her floor, playing solitaire from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. She was losing weight and growing agitated.

“She called my husband and asked, ‘When are you coming to get me?’” Olivia said. “He was so heartbroken. You have to meet people with Alzheimer’s where they are, and he told her ‘I’m coming, mom.’ Then we watched her pack up entire room. She took pictures off the wall. She found the camera and took it down. She did that a few times. She packed up her whole room and waited for him to come pick her up.”

The Lilleys have taken advantage of the gradual easing of restrictions. They’ve done window visits and porch visits.

“Before COVID-19, I’d take her to get her hair done once a week. It was a chance for her to get a really good shampoo, and it was with a hairdresser who loves her and knows how to talk to her. Like, she knows to talk to her and not just ignore her and talk to me,” Olivia said. “I’m sorry to get emotional, but it’s been hard to hear middle aged women talking about needing to get their nails done. My mother-in-law hasn’t had a haircut in seven months. It breaks my husband’s heart to see her looking so unkempt.”

Olivia said her family is trying to decide whether to leave Marilyn in assisted living. With flu season approaching, the Lilleys worry that Marilyn will once again be shut in her room, where she can’t see or hug loved ones.

Caregivers live with competing feelings: They praise the staff and directors of the facilities for doing their best to care for resident and comply with the state. But they and the government can’t satisfy infuriating questions that keep loved ones from the routines they need.

“I just want someone to tell me, how long is a negative test good?” Biggs said. “You do everything in your power to keep your child safe. You can’t do everything.”

Danks said the rules aren’t a guarantee.

“The way I look at it, the negative test is good until I walk out the door of the place you got the test,” Danks said. “But the negative test is a little better than no test at all. There’s no perfect world.”

Olivia said Abbott simply can’t understand what caregivers are going through, and they don’t seem to imagine what the lockdown has done to Texas’ most vulnerable residents.

“What would Gov. Abbott do if he was locked in a room and his wheelchair was taken from him? I want to know,” she said. “Because that’s what our loved ones have been living. Everyone wants to protect this group of people. I totally get that. ‘This is the Greatest Generation,’ they say. ‘They must be protected at all costs.’ But what is the cost? Because this is prison. I’m sorry, but it just is. And what’s going to happen this winter? We can’t do another lockdown with my mother-in-law.”

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Caregivers relieved, but cautious about eased restrictions for care facilities