11 hours ago
Man conned out of $400K in gold coins latest vic of LI fraud ring: suit
A Michigan man was allegedly scammed out of almost $400,000 in gold coins by a Long Island dealer who is at the center of at least a dozen scams across the United States, court documents reveal.
Ahmad Abdallah shipped five boxes of American Gold Eagle coins to Suffolk County-based Austin Coins in May 2024 as part of a deal that they be appraised and sent back if no trade was agreed to, according to a lawsuit filed on Long Island last week.
The collection included nearly 150 perfect condition, 22-karat coins minted as early as 1987 and ranging in size from 1/10th of an ounce to 1 ounce. The coins have face values of up to $50 each, though with gold currently priced at $3,400 an ounce, their actual worth is much higher.
3 Patrick White sent Ahmad Abdallah a text in October of Abdallah's coins that were supposed to be returned after appraisal, according to a lawsuit.
Obtained by the New York Post
After what he says was a 'bad faith, low-ball appraisal,' Abdallah demanded that Patrick White, the owner of Austin Coins, send the collection back to him, the federal court filing claims.
But Abdallah never got his coins back, he claimed in the suit, and was instead strung along by White, who assured him he was trying to find a buyer for the collection.
'Any news on my coins?' Abdallah asked White in October, according to court documents. 'Pat, please man, tell me something.'
'Pat, you just tell me things to hold me off for a day or so and then you disappear and nothing happens,' Abdallah texted him a week later.
Abdallah is seeking at least $385,000 for what he calls a 'willful, fraudulent, and dishonest 'appraisal scam.''
3 White sent Abdallah over text boasting of his travels.
White was already in court in April for a hearing in a different case, in which he and co-conspirators were accused of scamming Earl Keith — an 82-year-old retiree and cancer patient from Wyoming — into 'investing' more than $300,000 of his life savings into gold coins.
Kenneth Walsh, an attorney for Keith, Abdallah and several other alleged victims of White and his businesses said he asked White about Abdallah during the April hearing.
White claimed he had Abdallah's coins at his home in Huntington, before admitting they were actually in a storage container mostly filled with 'junk' in Melville that was at risk of being auctioned off because he owed the facility money, according to transcripts.
He paid the CubeSmart an hour before the contents were auctioned off but has refused to return Abdallah's coins, according to the court papers.
3 Abdallah begged White for months to give him an update on his gold coins and to ship them back to him in Michigan.
Obtained by the New York Post
'Mr. Abduallah's case is an unfortunate example of how these coin fraudsters work,' Walsh told The Post.
'We believe there are many other Austin Lloyd customers like him suffering financial losses in the millions,' Walsh continued.
'Even while under investigation, Patrick White and his accomplices continue to brazenly defraud consumers like Mr. Abduallah. Someone has to put an end to this — and that's why we pursue these cases.'
White, a former stockbroker now banned by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, is accused of being the 'ringleader' of at least 12 different coin scams, according to a lawsuit filed last year in Onondaga, New York, and several others reviewed by The Post.
White allegedly swindled upwards of $6.8 million from people across the country since around 2020, primarily 'vulnerable' retirees recruited through telemarketing cold calls made by his various shell companies, including Austin Lloyd, Inc., according to the filed lawsuits.
White said in court testimony that he and his accomplices had more than 5,000 customers.
White, who sources say has yet to face jailtime for the accused crimes, did not immediately respond to a message from The Post.
