Confessions of a Gold Scammer
Convicted swindler says he regrets taking thousands from unsuspecting buyers.
Oct. 27, 2011 — -- A federal judge next month will sentence the man who authorities say took advantage of the booming gold market, by scamming more than 1,400 people out of tens of millions of dollars.
But before he goes to prison, the mastermind of the scheme, Jamie Campany, sat down with ABC News' Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross to reveal how he tricked his hundreds of victims out of nearly $30 million.
The most promising victims of the gold scam, Campany said, were spotted through Google earth satellite images. Campany and his team matched phone leads to addresses to find victims with the biggest homes, and therefore the most money to invest in gold and silver.
But in reality, there was no gold despite the legitimate-looking transaction papers from the Global Bullion Exchange -- a company that Campany said was "completely bogus."
The Global Bullion Exchange was an invention of Campany's, who took ABC News back to the now-empty telephone boiler room in Florida where his telemarketers worked their victims, mostly upper middle class business people who Campany said let their egos get the best of them.
"Quite frankly, little old ladies are a lot more astute and a lot more skeptical about making investments with people they don't know," he said.
The pitch worked off the falling stock market and the rising price of gold as Campany recalled his lines for ABC News.
"Come on. Everybody knows what's going on in the markets today. Are you living in a cave?" he would say.
There was an answer for everything -- even if victim's protested by saying they didn't have any money.
"Sure you do," Campany or one of his telemarketers would say. "You've got a 401k, you have a stock portfolio... You have dead dogs that are not performing."
Dave Blomberg of Hialeah, Fla., said he was caught up in the scam after he received those calls.
"I did end up giving them a considerable amount of money, cause I thought if I invested more, I would get the money back," Blomberg said.
He never will, losing $75,000, and nor will the other investors. By the time the scheme collapsed and this place was shut down, all the money was long gone.
"I think about it every day. These people have to live with the pain that I caused them," Campany said. "It's going to hurt them for the rest of their lives. Hopefully this is one way I can stop it from happening to anybody else."
Campany faces up to 25 years in prison and told ABC News he's hoping his public confession will show the judge that he's truly sorry for his crimes.
