An Auburn couple was found guilty of defrauding 3,000 people through their precious metal company Northwest Territorial Mint, which had offices in Auburn and Federal Way, in a ‘ponzi-like scheme.’
The U.S. Attorney’s office says 61-year-old Bernard Ross Hansen was sentenced to 11 years in prison for committing 14 federal felonies. His partner in crime, 49-year-old Diane Renee Erdman, received a 5-year sentence.
Northwest Territorial Mint was a company that specialized in the selling, buying, exchanging, storing, and leasing of gold, silver, and other precious metals before it declared bankruptcy in 2016.
Through their company, the two lied about shipping times for bullion, used customer money as a personal and business bank account, and took over 2,500 orders that were never fulfilled or refunded.
While storing bullion for customers, Hansen and Erdman also used fake storage account statements to steal stored bullion from customers for their own business expansion as well as melting down customers’ property to fulfill other customers’ orders.
“The entire means of operation was nothing more than a fiction…. You were a wrecking ball building your empire,” U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones said.
“(The victims) trusted you and had faith in the snake oil you were selling; that faith was met with manipulation and deceit.”
The two were originally meant to appear in court in April, but attempted to flee before sentencing. The pair were caught after an 11-day manhunt in Port Hadlock, Wash. with three loaded firearms in the front seat of their car which prosecutors argued show a “danger of violence.”
Along with their prison sentences, they were ordered to repay $65.8 million in restitution to the victims they defrauded.
“Together, Hansen and his co-conspirator Ms. Erdmann stole decades of savings and financial security from thousands of victims who thought they were making safe investments for themselves and their loved ones,” said Donald M. Voiret, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Seattle Field Office and head of the investigation into the fraud.