Two Los Angeles men and their companies duped investors out of $180 million in a scheme targeting conservative and religious investors into buying precious metals at exorbitant prices, regulators said Friday. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, along with authorities in 30 states, accused Lucas Asher and Simon Batashvili of defrauding at least 1,600 investors since 2017. Companies tied to the men, including Metals.com and Barrick Capital Inc., are also defendants in the case, which was filed in Dallas federal court and...

Source: Wall Street Journal September 25, 2020 16:41 UTC