Attorney General Alan Wilson, who serves as the South Carolina Securities Commissioner, filed a complaint Monday against Ronnie Gene Wilson and Atlantic Bullion & Coin, Inc., accusing Wilson and AB&C of scamming people who thought they were investing in silver. Wilson continued to offer fake investment opportunities to people in South Carolina and 24 other states despite a previous cease and desist order.
The complaint states that Wilson and AB&C provided statements to investors indicating that they owned silver when no silver had ever been purchased.
According to the complaint, Wilson, a former Anderson County Council member, met with representatives of the Securities Division in February and testified under oath that he and AB&C’s business bought bars of silver that he would either deliver to clients or that clients would pick up. The complaint states that there is no evidence to back up Wilson’s claims.
The attorney general has alleged that Wilson has actually been running a Ponzi scheme in which earlier investors were being paid with the money from new investors and no silver was ever purchased.
Wilson is accused of defrauding investors in 25 states of more than $70 million.
Wilson was elected to Anderson County Council in 2007. He did not seek re-election and was replaced by Ken Waters in January 2011.
Wilson was also the former national commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and served from 2002 to 2004.
He ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the South Carolina Senate in 2004.
See related story – Customers concerned
See related story – Secret Service, Sheriffs’ Deputies search AB&C offices
