A $56 million consent order over gold and silver coins sold at triple their cost
Red Rock Secured, LLC and two of its salespeople convinced at least 950 people nationwide to pay over $69 million for gold and silver "Canadian Red-Tailed Hawk" coins that were worth only about $30 million, marking up the coins by 92% to 130% over cost while quoting customers a 1%-to-5% bullion markup. A federal court entered a consent order in April 2024 requiring the company and its CEO and senior salesperson to pay a combined $56.3 million and permanently banning them from the precious metals and investment-advice business.
- Year
- 2024
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Settled
- Reported loss
- $69.0 million
- Victims
- 950
- Schemes
- Precious metals and gold IRA scams
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-26
The facts, as recorded
- The CFTC found the defendants ran a nationwide fraud from approximately November 2019 through approximately June 2022, and that most victims used tax-deferred retirement funds to buy the coins.
- Red Rock sales staff, including senior salesperson Anthony Spencer, quoted customers the 1%-to-5% markup Red Rock charged on common bullion, then sold them 'premium' Canadian Red-Tailed Hawk coins carrying markups of 91.89% to 129.97% over Red Rock's own acquisition cost, a bait-and-switch the order describes explicitly.
- Sales staff falsely told customers Red Rock had a 'direct relationship' with the Royal Canadian Mint allowing it to buy 'at wholesale' and marketed the coins as 'limited quantity,' when in fact Red Rock bought from a wholesaler and the coins had no mintage limit.
- The April 23, 2024 consent order against Red Rock Secured, LLC, CEO Sean L. Kelly (formerly Shade L. Kelly-Johnson) and Anthony Spencer requires $38,984,313.90 in restitution, $5.1 million in disgorgement and $12.25 million in civil penalties, about $56.3 million combined, plus permanent CFTC trading and registration bans and a bar on Spencer and Kelly acting as investment advisers in California and Hawaii.
- A parallel SEC case against Red Rock (which now operates as American Coin Co.), Kelly, Spencer and a fourth defendant, Jeffrey Ward, ended in a $76.4 million final consent judgment in May 2024 for defrauding at least 700 investors of more than $50 million since 2017; amounts owed to the SEC are offset by whatever the defendants actually pay the CFTC.
- CFTC Director of Enforcement Ian McGinley: "The defendants preyed upon elderly victims to liquidate their retirement savings to invest in a precious metals scam."
Why this case matters
This is the largest, most fully adjudicated case of its kind: a nationwide operation, a fraud period of nearly three years, and two separate federal regulators, the CFTC and the SEC, reaching final orders against the same defendants for the same underlying conduct.
The bait-and-switch, in the regulator’s own words
The order does not describe a vague overcharge. It describes a specific script: quote the honest 1%-to-5% markup on ordinary bullion to build trust, then steer the sale toward “premium” coins carrying markups several times higher: 92% to 130% over what Red Rock itself paid for them.
A relationship that didn’t exist
Telling a customer a dealer has a “direct relationship” with a national mint, and can therefore buy “at wholesale,” is a specific, checkable claim, and the order found it was false. So was the claim that the coins were “limited quantity”: the Royal Canadian Mint placed no cap on how many could be struck.
The caveat
The April 2024 order is a consent order: the defendants agreed to its terms and to the findings recited in it, which is why this is recorded as settled rather than a court judgment reached after a contested trial. The CFTC’s own release cautions that an order requiring payment does not guarantee victims recover it, wrongdoers may not have sufficient assets left.
Sources
- Federal Court Orders California-Based Precious Metals Company, CEO, Senior Salesperson to Pay Over $56 Million for Fraud in Connection with Precious Metals Sales. US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Accessed 2026-09-26. Supports: The defendant names, the $56.3 million combined order, the November 2019-June 2022 fraud period, the 950-customer and $69-million/$30-million figures, the markup percentages, the fake Royal Canadian Mint relationship and false scarcity claim, and the McGinley quote.
- Red Rock Secured LLC, Sean Kelly, Anthony Spencer, and Jeffrey Ward. US Securities and Exchange Commission. Accessed 2026-09-26. Supports: The parallel SEC case, the $76.4 million final judgment, the 700-investor and $50-million figures, the 2017 start date, the American Coin Co. rebrand, the Jeffrey Ward defendant, and the offset between the SEC and CFTC judgments.