got physical?
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...S%20&st=cse
AUDIT AFTER GOLD DEALER’S SUICIDE SUGGESTS CUSTOMERS LOST MILLIONS
By ROBERT J. COLE
Published: October 5, 1983
Some $60 million worth of gold, silver and platinum sold to thousands of individuals and then supposedly stored in Rocky Mountain vaults may never have existed, an investigation suggested yesterday.
The possibility emerged in an audit conducted by the accounting firm of Touche Ross & Company in connection with the suicide last Wednesday of Alan David Saxon, 39-year-old chairman of Bullion Reserve of North America, a gold dealer with offices in Los Angeles, Dallas and Hong Kong.
Bullion Reserve has 30,000 to 35,000 customers. If the missing assets cannot be found, most of their investments may be lost.
Vaults Near Salt Lake City
Lawyers for the company said the audit showed that a depository, owned by Perpetual Storage Inc. of Salt Lake City and buried 200 feet in a nearby mountain range, contained only about $900,000 in bullion and coins. Another $140,000 to $150,000 worth of coins were found at Brinks Inc. of Los Angeles, another Bullion Reserve storage center.
The discovery, made over the weekend, prompted Bullion Reserve to file a bankruptcy petition Monday in Los Angeles, seeking court protection from its creditors