If the metals were allocated, the vaults may be more empty than many think. This isn't an isolated case either.

JUNE 6, 2013

I have been a broker for 20 years. Recently the major broker dealer I work for asked me and my clients to leave due to too high of a concentration in physical metals.

I am now in the process of moving my clients and metals to a new custodian. Here is where things get interesting: Every transfer is being rejected multiple times for the any reason the old major broker dealer can come up with.

More interesting is all, when the old broker dealer finally does transfer the metals to the new custodian, NONE of the bars are the same in weight or serial number as my clients’ statements!

From Steve Quayle:

I have been a broker for 20 years. Recently the major broker dealer I work for asked me and my clients to leave due to too high of a concentration in physical metals. After 4 months of trying to find a new home for my business, and being denied by every major broker dealer in the US, I had no choice but to become an RIA. After three months of complete lies getting my RIA approved I am now in the process of moving my clients and metals to the new custodian.

Here is where things get interesting. Every transfer is being rejected multiple times for the any reason the old major broker dealer can come up with.

More interesting is all of the metals which have variable weights like 1,000 Silver, 100 oz gold and 50oz platinum, when the old broker dealer finally does transfer the metals to the new custodian, NONE of the bars are the same in weight or serial number as my clients statements. The old broker dealer is having to come to me and my clients with bars of different serial numbers and weight than the one listed on the statements or from old trade confirms.

This mis-match on transfers proves to me that the old broker deal NEVER had the metals and are now having to go acquire them to make good on client transfers. Coincidentally, I was also a broker at Morgan Stanley in 2006 when MS got busted for excessive storage fees and it turned out MS never owned the metals that were printed on client statements either.

Moral to the story,if you own metals at a major broker dealer, just because they are printed on your statement, does not mean they exist.I highly recommend shipping them home, even if they are in a qualified account. If there too much to take out of a qualified account, transfer them to a new custodian, for the new custodian will not accept the transfer without videotaping and verifying the move of metals from the storage depository to the new storage depository.