This old article was found in the pages of USA TODAY and I would like to know if any of you have knowledge of what is the current status.

Thank you and greetings.

Trb
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SEC dubious of German bond deal.

Posted 7/3/2006

By Elliot Blair Smith, USA TODAY

Las Vegas investor Jeffrey Weston has been snapping up Germany Weimar Republic bonds from the 1920s on the premise that $1,000 in IOUs payable in gold then are today worth about $1 billion apiece.

Along the way, Weston, 46, persuaded dozens of investors to give him $7.7 million to purchase the antique certificates, which lost much of their value after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933.

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Weston had spun a fantastic tale while spending $2 million of investors' money on a house and cars and tucking away $454,000 more in Swiss bank accounts. The SEC said Weston bought some German bonds of dubious value, paying as little as $190 apiece for them, but laid little of the legal groundwork he promised investors toward establishing an investment trust he called INGOTs for Insured Notes of German Obligations Trusts.

In an emergency filing in Las Vegas, the SEC sued to halt Weston's promotions, freeze his funds and recover what authorities say might be only pennies on the dollar. The FBI and Texas authorities also are investigating, court records show.

SEC attorney Jeffrey Norris called Weston's investment sales pitch "far-fetched and impossible."

Weston, author of The German Financial Time Bomb: A Betrayal of the American Public, a Fantastic Deception, 50 years of Cover-up and Now a Solution, which investigators say he published with investors' funds, declined to comment. In a brief phone conversation, Weston said he was unfamiliar with the SEC lawsuit but promised to "be in touch" with his investors about the government case.

Since 1953, Germany has offered to honor bonds belonging to their legitimate owners at face value, and without interest while contending that most paper certificates now in circulation have no redemption value because they were pillaged by Russian troops from its banks at the end of World War II.

Weston's far greater expectations are based on his assertion that "Germany was lying about the looting by Russian soldiers" and appraisals that value the certificates much higher, his sales materials state. One marketing document identifies the Iowa high school graduate as "one of the world's foremost experts" in finance.

In June, Weston gave SEC investigators a lengthy deposition in which he cited previous jobs as a "penny stock" broker, a multilevel cosmetic salesman and manager of a Cayman Islands mutual fund that authorities liquidated in 2002. Weston acknowledged he'd had no income since the fund folded.

Weston told investigators he had "used a significant portion" of investors' funds for "personal expenses," which he'd recorded as a loan with "a sticky (note) that I put in my calendar book ... indicating that it was a loan that I had taken that needed to be repaid."

Far from shy, Weston recounted previous clashes with the FBI and disgruntled investors and boasted he was able to buy the prewar German bonds far cheaper than anybody else "because most people won't sell them to anybody but me, because they're afraid that the person they're dealing with is an agent of the German government and going to confiscate the bonds."

Several investors expressed confidence Weston will prevail and force German authorities to honor the securities.

"I don't find anything untoward in anything Mr. Weston's told me," said George Vaile of Las Vegas, who invested $830,000 with Weston. "I believe the bonds have value."

James Long of Austin, who invested $300,000, said: "He's got, frankly, the German government in a very terrible position and I feel like this is a good investment even for somebody who's a moderate risk taker like I am."

http://www.germantimebomb.com/

a big bunch of balloney, these bonds are all demonetized and the only way to get some working would be to proof that in the last 40 years you were unable to present them for evaluation, have a clean track of ownership etc. All the different dates have expired and there are a couple of crazies who still believe they can compel the German government to pay them (yeah Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are having a coffee at a fly-through Starbucks on their flying carpet with a Djin serving the honors) and bunch of fraudsters who like to use the very nice and cheap paper to fool some investors including the brokers who fool around with them (it follows the same trail like the fake Asian and Wells Fargo papers). Ah I forgot that there are lawyers like Ed Fagan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Fagan) who seem to think they can charge their clients for the lawsuits (http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/bonds/article.jsp?content=20060109_144841_3096>), putting them in a mindset of hope.....



There are also some who seem to think the Chinese will pay their old railroad bonds etc.....



That the German's will pay up is a dream which is even further out, mostly a bunch of American's who seem to feel that due to the fact that the German's lost the war they can be pressured to pay these.



Anyone involved in these better throw his/her money out of the window, at least you have a chance to make a homeless happy for a night.



Even collectors items are priced low.
Deutsches Reich (Internationale 5,5%ige Anleihe, Young-Anleihe)
[9699] 39,00
http://www.nonvaleur-shop.de/historische-wertpapiere/deutsches-reich-internationale-ige-anleihe-young-anleihe-p-2617.html

Deutsches Reich (Deutsche Äußere Anleihe 1924, schweizerische Au
[9683] 39,00
http://www.nonvaleur-shop.de/historische-wertpapiere/deutsches-reich-deutsche-%C3%83%E2%80%9Eussere-anleihe-schweizerische-au-p-2581.html

also see:

http://www.taxlinks.com/rulings/1954/revrul54-501.htm

RL , I concur with your comments. However, what is the latest with Jeffrey Weston. Is he still trying to redeem these worthless historical German bonds or did he return the money to the victims ...er..I mean, the investors...or is he hiding?



Trb

as long as I know he is still at it but having problems with his brokers and investors (if I hear right)

http://sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2006/comp19750.pdf

http://www.404.gov/litigation/complaints/2006/comp19750.pdf and

http://sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2006/lr19750.htm

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 19750 / June 30, 2006.
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jeffrey A. Weston and Integrated Equities, Inc., (U.S.D.C., District of Nevada, Las Vegas Division, Civil Action No. 2:06-CV-00779-RCJ-GWF)
SEC Files Emergency Lawsuit to Halt Fraudulent Securities Offering Involving Defaulted Pre-War German Bonds
On June 26, 2006, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an emergency action in Las Vegas federal court to halt what the Commission contends is a fraudulent offering of joint venture interests involving defaulted pre-World War II German bonds. On June 27, the court entered a temporary restraining order suspending the offering and an order freezing the defendants' assets. The court also ordered the defendants to preserve documents and submit to expedited discovery. The court set a hearing for July 7, 2006 to consider the Commission's application for preliminary injunctive relief, appointment of a receiver and the entry of orders requiring defendants to repatriate investor funds and provide an accounting.

The defendants named in the Commission's Complaint are:

Jeffrey A. Weston, age 46, of Las Vegas, who has styled himself as an expert in these German bonds; and

Integrated Equities, Inc. ("IEI"), a Nevada corporation operated from Weston's residence and of which Weston is the sole employee.
The Commission's Complaint alleges that Weston and IEI, directly and through sales agents, have raised at least $7.7 million from sales of the joint venture interests to over 50 investors in 16 states since June 2004. The Commission asserts that Weston and IEI entice investors through numerous material misrepresentations and omissions, such as: that investor funds will be used only to purchase the German bonds; that IEI will buy one bond per $1,000 invested; that the bonds will be placed in a trust, interests in which will be "securitized," insured, rated "AAA" by Standard & Poor's, and sold to institutional investors; and that the proceeds of the sale of these securitized interests will provide investors 100% or greater annual returns for up to thirty years.

According to the Complaint, Weston and IEI have done none of these things. Instead, the Commission contends that Weston largely has used investor money to enrich himself or for purposes unrelated to the offering. The Complaint details, for instance, that Weston "borrowed" $2 million of investor proceeds to purchase and furnish a luxurious home and to fund his family's living expenses, and that he wired an additional $454,000 of investor funds to Swiss banks. The Complaint further alleges that Weston used $100,000 of investor proceeds to pay legal expenses unrelated to the offering, sent another $415,000 to one investor as Ponzi payments, and paid undisclosed commissions of $550,000 to two sales agents. The Commission believes that $1.6 million of the offering proceeds remain in bank accounts Weston controls and $300,000 remains in law firm accounts as retainers. The balance is unaccounted for.

Weston and IEI are charged with securities fraud under both the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. In addition to the temporary restraining order and asset freeze already granted, the Commission's Complaint seeks injunctive relief, appointment of a receiver, a repatriation order, an accounting and orders prohibiting the destruction of documents and expediting discovery. The Complaint also seeks civil penalties and disgorgement.

The articles are dated 2006 and it appears as the project went dormant. Just a though and nothing much else: I am just wondering ("just") if the German government paid him off so he would remain quiet.



Trb