An Austin man faces federal wire fraud and money laundering charges in connection to a scheme to defraud customers out of millions of dollars, federal investigators said.
Charles McAllister, 47, owns Bullion Direct Inc., and in a federal grand jury indictment unsealed on Tuesday was charged with two counts of wire fraud and one count of engaging in a monetary transaction with criminally derived property.
According to a press release from the Department of Justice, from Jan. 2009 to July 2015, McAllister allegedly orchestrated a scheme that falsely represented that the funds given by customers were used to purchase precious metals on the customers' behalf, and that they either shipped directly to the customer or were stored in BDI's vault.
Instead, McAllister allegedly used the money meant for the precious metals and spent it on BDI corporate expenses, other investment activities and for his own personal use and gain.
The indictment seeks a monetary judgment of $16,186,212.56, representing the amount of proceeds obtained directly or indirectly from the defendant's alleged scheme during the time of the indictment.
McAllister is currently on bond and no further court dates have been scheduled, the release states. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison for each wire fraud count and up to 10 years in federal prison for the money laundering charge.
