Internal WhatsApp messages have surfaced – exchanges between current and former employees of ABC Bullion – which cast doubt over the group’s precious metals storage. Kim Wingerei reports.
As revealed by MWM, economist John Adams has been encouraging ASIC to properly investigate the storage practices of ABC Bullion for several years. ABC is an Australian precious metals trading company which Adam’s says has engaged in misleading storage practices. ASIC did conduct an investigation but found no wrongdoing.
For its part, ABC Bullion strongly denies any wrongdoing and accuses Adams of being “reckless and misleading”.
The discontinued ASIC investigation was brought up by Malcolm Roberts in the Senate last night (Tuesday, September 10), the Senator saying, “ASIC is failing the Australian people.” He highlighted how ASIC spent over nine months and more than $300,000 on an investigation that found nothing, despite the company storing bullion on behalf of clients in a building that may not have been legally occupied and consequently may not have been properly insured.
Roberts also questioned the involvement of Prime Minister Albanese in effectively endorsing ABC Bullion and its parent company, Pallion, at a press conference in October 2023, when, in addition to the ASIC investigation of ABC Bullion, Pallion was the subject of a long-running investigation by the ATO in relation to a GST-scam.
Did Albo know? ASIC faces questions into bungled investigation of ABC Bullion
MWM has now been shown WhatsApp messages from the staff at ABC Bullion that show the questionable practices alleged by Adams not only took place but were a well-known practice at the company. According to Adams, the members of the chat group called ‘The Good Place’ consisted of seven current and former ABC Bullion employees who made a series of damning statements about ABC Bullion and its Managing Director, Janie Simpson.
These encrypted messages, spanning approximately 70 pages, were supplied to Adams by an ABC Bullion employee turned whistleblower. In the whistleblower’s 23-page statement provided to ASIC, they confirmed that the encrypted communications were authentic as well as named each participant in the WhatsApp Group chat*.
Specifically, the whistleblower named a former Sales and Business Development Manager, a former accounts manager, and a current National Sales Manager.
Mrs Grout went public in March 2021 via Reddit.
The context of the WhatsApp messages came after an ABC client, Mrs Julie Grout, went public on social media platform Reddit in March 2021, having received a phone call that her physical silver bullion property held in ABC Bullion’s secure storage product did not exist.
This revelation was despite Mrs Grout paying storage fees for over six months and receiving ABC Bullion Metal Account Statements stating that her physical bullion was in storage under ABC Bullion’s custodianship.
In a statement to MWM, the client still recounts the horror she experienced in dealing with ABC Bullion’s storage program:
“My experience with ABC Bullion was horrific. Despite them issuing statements that my property was held in their storage facility, the truth was the complete opposite. I continue to stand by my previous comments that their storage program is a sophisticated scam.”
In response to Mrs Grout going public, current and former ABC Bullion employees made the following admissions in The Good Place:
“Tell the ops dude for a solution. Guy has x amount of metal been paying storage fees and we haven’t stored it for him ever.”
“You know how fucked it will be if got out? The secure storage program is way worse as your charging clients for a service that it is not provided. Its a fraud”
“Just covering for the business XXXX hahaha we know what we do with “secure”. We sell it and order more to replenish, repeat cycle.”
“When I was working in accounting I felt like I’m doing something terribly illegal every month end when stock and storage reports were getting finalised.”
“1. Your charging a big premium to the client without paying premium to buy the metal. 2. Your charging a clients for a service of storing it when your not storing it.”
“Xxxxx throw it straight on Janie. We tried to stop her selling other ppls metal.”
MWM understands that ASIC never interviewed Mrs Grout despite them having access to these revelations.
In response to questions sent to ABC Bullion, a company spokesperson stated that “No grievance or whistleblowing reports have been received from any employee or confidential source at any time, relating to or regarding the allegations made by John Adams.” ABC Bullion also states that they have only ever had one [other] complaint about their storage practices, a claim that was resolved with the client. ABC Bullion’s full statement is available here.
ABC Bullion changes its terms
Shortly after the Reddit post, ABC Bullion appears to have sought to limit the possibility of other storage defaults by altering the length of time that it had to meet redemption requests. They did so quietly without any notification to its clients or even to its own staff.
Specifically, in April 2021, ABC Bullion altered its website, changing the terms of redemption from 48 hours to 10 business days, which remains the stated retrieval time today. (Redemption time is the time from when a client gives notice of physical removal of bullion to when it will be available.)
The change to ABC Bullion’s website was met at the time with derision by employees within The Good Place.
One group member stated that the change “is the dumbest shit ever” while a former ABC Bullion accounts manager stated that ABC Bullion’s leadership was “so sneaky” and that “they are overconfident and pathetic.”
Moving bullion to illegally occupied building?
Our earlier story about ABC Bullion revealed how the company was storing bullion in an illegally occupied building at 2 Lillian Fowler Place in Marrickville and how this took place 3 1/2 weeks after ASIC had commenced its investigation into the company’s practices.
The ASIC investigation was concluded with a finding of “no wrongdoing.” An ASIC spokesperson told MWM that “ASIC does not comment on details of its investigation and enforcement methods.”
According to John Adams, both ABC Bullion and ASIC have questions to answer, given the facts and documentation he uncovered during his investigation, including the messages from the WhatsApp chats as well as the evidence from the local council showing that the Marrickville building did not have a Certificate of Occupation (CoO) until August 27 this year, incidentally the day after our first article was published.
ABC Bullion refutes this but offers no proof or specifics other than stating, “The Occupation Certificate was received prior to any engagement with Michael West media, including your 26 August story.”
John Adams remains dissatisfied with the ASIC investigation, telling MWM:
“These secret encrypted messages show that my 608-page report of alleged misconduct that was lodged with ASIC were not baseless or a conspiracy theory. Any suggestion along these lines is nothing more than a nonsensical ad hominem attack.
“Rather, the truth of the matter is a former ABC Bullion employee turned whistleblower was able to demonstrate a secret network of current and former employees who openly confessed to long-running improper storage practices at ABC Bullion, even calling their own employer as engaging in fraud.”
“ABC Bullion also needs to explain as to why did the company, in April 2021, require an additional 8 business days to retrieve physical bullion from their vaults if everything was in order?”
“Lastly, ASIC needs to explain to Australian taxpayers what did it find when it investigated these WhatsApp messages.”
___
* MWM has decided not to publish the names of the individuals involved.
This post was originally published on Michael West.