Lear Financial REVIEW: Excellent customer service is Lear Financials number one priority. We are committed to ensuring our clients success through the timely investment in gold, silver and other precious metals.

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*UPDATE: Lear Financial pledges their commitment to always improving their operations by joining Rip-off Reports Corporate Advocacy, Business Remediation and Customer Satisfaction Program. This program benefits the consumer by increasing their confidence when doing business with a member business. Lear Financial is recognized by Rip-off Report as a Verified Safe business.

PART 1 in a SERIES:

Many allege that they were subjected to wrongdoings or illegal activities by Lear Financial Inc., of Santa Monica CA.

There are allegations of systematic widespread fraud; claims that Lear systematically misled its customers about the amount of commissions they were paying and overcharged them, among other wrongful acts. There are claims that Lear systematically violated the California Penal Code by unlawfully recording and eavesdropping on conversations between salesmen and customers without the customer's knowing consent and under California law, Lear Financial is subject to a $5,000 civil penalty payable to the customer for each such violation.

Customer of Lear Financial who bought $15,000:

R.B. Badar - Lear Financial, Misleading statements by seller and excessive sales markup Santa Monica California

I heard on a respected conservative talk show host, I believe it was Mr. Rush Limbaugh, advertize the potential growth and little risk in buying gold. I called the 1-800 number and in return, was contacted by R. B. Brdar, senior portfolio manager representing Lear Financial, Inc.

He stated that if I bought gold coin, in this case, there would be no risk since gold was still climbing on a daily basis. He stated there was a marginal markup of about 5-8 percent, which included a guaranteed buy back with out further cost. He also stated that if I bought at least 10,000 worth, I would get a substantial discount when buying. I then bought 10,000 worth at a cost 0f 1225.00 per coin. It took several weeks to receive the coins after payment. He called several times after that stating that gold had gone up several points and I was already making a profit of 25 to 50 / coin.

A few weeks later, he called and gave me another big offer, I bought another 5,000.00 worth of coins. Again, almost a month wait to receive the coins.

I happened to go to a coin sales and found the same coins for sale at 950/coin. same year and same grade by the same grading company.

Being upset, I called Lear Financial and found out that R. B. Brdar had retired and that Mr. Bradford M. Kaye, the department head, would handle my call. I told I wanted to sell the coins. I got the run around with him saying there had been a drop in gold prices. I told him bull all the charts on line showed a profit, not much but a profit. Over all it was all going up. After a big run around, I asked for an email stating how to send the coins back for at least my money invested.

Well he made an offer in the email to buy back the original coins for $5442.60 total/ approx 940/coin.

Therefore, not only did they inflate the worth of the coins on initial sails, but the offer was even less than the going market value of other companies selling then same year, mint mark and rating.

I called him and told Bradford that is company was a crooked as they come and would not deal with him at all. John Kennewick, Washington U.S.A.

Customer of Lear Financial who bought $25,000:

Mr. Dion-Kindem,

I received your letter dated March 29, 2007 asking about my dealings with Lear Financial. I had a very bad relationship with Kevin DeMeritt and Lear Financial and will assist in any way I can in your lawsuit against them.

I first became interested in gold in October of 2005. I knew nothing of how the gold markets worked and I put my trust in a Lear salesman named Chase Greenich. Chase skillfully convinced me that he had only my best interests at heart and that he wanted to make me a client for the long-term. I fell for his smooth talking and ended up sending over $25,000 to Lear Financial. In return I received twenty 1924 and 1925 $20 St. Gaudens gold coins graded MS-64 at $1,225.00 each and one 1899 $10 Liberty gold coin graded MS-63 for $1,185.00.

After about a month of additional research into the rare gold coin market, I realized I had been ripped off! At that time, I could have purchased the identical coins on the open market for $800.00 each! I confronted Kevin DeMeritt on the phone and had a nice loud discussion with him about their sales methods of misleading their customers. He first tried to tell me these coins were premium quality and worth the extra money. I found out later from other sources that was a bunch of BS!

DeMeritt's only defense was the "sales contract" that they had me sign which had a bunch of fine print in it about markups and other crap. But because he was concerned about my satisfaction (BS) and wanted to keep me as a long-time customer (no chance), he refunded me $100 per coin. But even at the reduced price of $1,125.00 per coin, it was still 40% over the open market price! And even after 18 months, and with the price of gold skyrocketing, these coins are still only valued at about $900 each. It will be a very long time, if ever, before I will be able to break even on my investment!

I published my experiences with Lear Financial on an eBay chat room and heard back from a few other customers who had similar experiences. One elderly gentleman wanted to buy over $80,000 worth of gold bullion (current gold coins that sell for the published market price of gold) and his Lear salesman talked him into buying a bunch of low-quality rare coins that were just as over-priced as mine. If Lear Financial had sold this guy the gold bullion like he asked for, the guy would have made over 35% by now. Instead, the old guy is going to lose a bunch of his retirement money.

So after talking to a few other people about getting ripped off by Lear, I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in California. This quickly prompted a call from Kevin DeMeritt and we had another loud conversation about their misleading sales practices. His response to the BBB was full of lies and contradictions. You might be able to get a copy of my original complaint and all the responses from the California BBB.

While dealing with Chase Greenich, I do recall being told a couple of times that our conversation was being recorded. But there was absolutely no way Chase ever told me they were marking up these coins by 40%! Yes, it was my own mistake for not checking out the market before I bought, but Chase Greenich and Lear Financial did a very good job of misleading me about the value of the coins I purchased. I will be very willing to testify that Lear Financial engages in widespread and systematic fraud of their customers. I have a feeling you will hear from many more former customers who have had similar experiences. Good luck and let me know how I can help! Doug H.

Customer of Lear Financial who bought $30,000:

Mr. Dion-Kindem: Received your letter and yes, I also bought coins from Lear Financial and had a very similar situation to the one described in your letter. I have been stewing about this since it happened and would like nothing better that to help you go after these people. I think they are nothing but a bunch of crooks. Please let me know what you need from me. Joe

Excerpt of letter obtained with permission from customer of Lear Financial who bought $100,000:

I am the president of Hebron Ministries, a Christian organization that is involved in giving conferences to leaders of many Christian demonstrations. We also have seminaries and churches in the U.S. and many other nations. I would like to explain to you why my phone to Lear are neither received nor returned by the two representatives in you organization who sold us $100,000 in gold coins one year ago. Their names are Marc Palazzo and Marine (I do not know Marine's last name).

As you can see by the enclosed invoices, on January 2, 2003, I invested $50,000 in gold coins with Marc Palazzo. Although not shown on the invoice, I was acting on behalf of our organization. Then, in February I invested another $50,000 with him in gold bullion. Our plan in Hebron Ministries was to see if the returns were acceptable on a $100,000 investment and then learned about Lear though your ad in World Magazine and decided to use your company. When I called your offices, I was referred to Mr. Palazzo.

I admit that I knew very little about investing in gold. However, Mr. Palazzo came across as such an honest and helpful individual that I made the foolish mistake of placing my trust in him. I also assumed that since your company had advertised in World Magazine, a Christian publication, that Lear would be a company with good business ethics. I still have no reason to doubt Lear's practices, but I would like to make you aware of MR. Palazzo's practices.

My original idea was to buy bullion, but Mr. Palazzo convinced me that the wisest plan for long term investments was gold coins. However, he explained that since $20 gold pieces had risen 55% during the previous year that the right decision at that time was to buy $5 and $10 gold coins, since they were expected to rise sharply also in the near future. I agreed to do so and told him that I trusted his judgment in deciding which coins to send me for the $50,000 that I would immediately deposit with Lear. This was a foolish mistake.

When I received my coins a few days later, I was surprised to see that Mr. Palazzo had invested over half of the $50,000 in eight $20 St. Gaudens, precisely what he had just told me to avoid. However, once again I assumed that he was looking out for my best interests (another foolish mistake)!

AS you can see, I then invested $25,000 in Krugerrands in February. However, in April, Mr. Palazzo called me and convinced me that I was making a mistake to hold bullion instead of coins. He told me that a man in your company called Marine was prepared to make me a very special offer to recover the losses I had already sustained on the bullion (something that, today, would have turned into a good profit). I talked with Marine, and he told me that he would give me such a good price on $10 Liberty coins that I would recover what I had lost on the bullion.

I then made my third mistake. I agreed to do so. The phone-recorded agreement was that I would invest a total of $25,000 in $10 Liberty coins at $399 per coin (which was to work out to 125 coins). I then sent $25,000 plus my Krugerrands to Lear. When I received my coins and invoice a few days later, I noticed that almost $2,500 of our money had disappeared in the deal, and I and received only 119 coins. I called Mr. Palazzo and Marine several times, explaining that the recorded transaction was very clear. In the first call, Marine said that between our phone agreement and the moment they received my bullion (the next day), that the price of bullion had dropped and that he could not give me the price he had promised. Finally, after several calls, they agreed to send me four more coins, and I agreed to take the loss of two coins, valued at almost $800.

Everything was fine until about six weeks ago when I called Mr. Palazzo to ask how much my coins were worth. He did not want to talk about it and referred me to Marine. Marine finally called me back to let me know what my coins were worth. I then understood why they did not want to talk to me. After one year, my coins were worth $75,000. I was shocked. But I was even more shocked when I began to look into the current prices of coins on the market.

I now realize that those two men took advantage of my misplaced confidence in their honesty. They were willing to take advantage of a potentially valuable Lear client for either their won profit or else the profit of friends. It seems that we have a case of insider trading. They sold me coins whose value was 25% less after a year in which the gold market had risen 15%.

I understood from the beginning that Lear makes a reasonable 14% on the transactions between buying and selling. However, instead of that commission being at least partly covered by a 15% rise in gold prices during the past year, I still stand to lose 25%. I now know what the gold coins I have are actually worth, and approximately what they were worth a year ago. I am sure that if you look at the prices I paid on my invoices, you will see that they were never worth what I paid and still are not. Apparently, they either sold me their own coins, or those of a friend, at very inflated prices, allowing someone to make a lot of money off Herbon's $100,000 investment.
End excerpt letter from the President of Hebron Ministries.

What a few of the bloggers have to say about Lear Financial and Kevin DeMeritt:

August 28, 2006 to March 16, 2007

Samablog robsama com

August 28, 2006 Robsama says: Is Lear Financial being completely honest? Am I the only one sick and tired of their advertisements on Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and elsewhere? Rather, what these guys appear to be doing is trying to confuse less educated conservative viewers into thinking that gold is a good investment by using a phrase they may have heard or read before.

November 30th, 2006 Manicman says: I have seen these ads too. Mostly, I tend to dismiss most of these kinds of ads that are clearly low in production value and high on hyperbole, like the most annoying head on commercials which are in the same league as this tripe. But I think you're on to something here, and it's time for consumers to call out advertisers who are overstepping their bounds. Hyperbole is one thing if you're selling scented candles or you're going for thrill effect to sell a sports car, but when you are talking about investments, there simply is no wiggle room of this kind that is allowable. There is nothing thrilling or mysterious about finances and there should not be. The campaign is clearly misleading and until now, I've simply dismissed it because it's so easy to ignore crappy ads that I know in my heart are pushing the bounds of honesty if not crossing it. But consumers should no longer sit idly by and allow this slippery slope to continue.

November 30th, 2006 Tencentsashine says: Off the top of my head, there are a few things that strike me. First, a company that advertises on Rush probably isn't marketing to the most discerning of consumers. Lear probably also advertises on Christian radio (I am an occasional listener). [I just checked this and saw that yes, you too can benefit as a Christian Worldview reader if you buy now!]. Based on where they advertise, it's my guess that Lear Financial targets the paranoid conspiracy theorists or eschatological fear mongers or right-wing fringe groups - all of which have a common distrust of government or world systems or figure the Second Coming is around the corner.

January 5th, 2007 Jay says: I also hate those Lear ads - they seem to have a very shady snake oil quality to them, like those General Steel ads (who are, by the way, proven to be dishonest and have been sued in court). Anyway, you can be pretty assured that Kevin DeMerritt is a wealthy man. But is most of his wealth derived from investing in gold for the long term, or as a middleman SELLING gold (at higher than fair market value) to the suckers who call in after hearing the ad? From what I understand, the free investment guide is nothing more than a come-on to sell overpriced gold coins. Think about this IF those gold coins were such a great long-term investment, don't you think Lear would be trying to accumulate as many of them as possible to hold on to for a long time, rather than try to dump them on any sucker they can find?

March 5th, 2007 Richard Waldorf says: I purchased several coins from Lear Financial only to learn later that their prices are very inflated and add their $325.00 service fee per coin feel I was ripped off. The only retirement account to benefit from this transaction was theirs, not mine!!

March 8th, 2007 Jay says: Richard - ouch! Sorry to hear that. A $325 service fee seems outrageous. That's the first I've hear of this. These guys are indeed slick. I still hear their radio ads several times a day, and just cringe every time they come on, knowing how much they clean up on every sale. It's basically Kevin just sitting there going on and on about gold this, gold thatbuy gold now, experts are saying 50% appreciation this year next year every year, blah blah blah. His articles say paper money is basically worthless; gold holds its value, etc. Yet, he is MORE than willing to part with his precious gold coins for YOUR cold, hard cash - cash that of course will be worth no more than its face value three, five, ten years from now. If your cold hard cash is worth more to him than his gold, such that he's easily willing to part with those coins, what does that really say about his opinions of those coins with regard to their future value? It may be true that pure 24kt gold bullion is a smart investment, provided you are paying the fair market price per ounce and no more, but those coins have got to be the biggest scam going. I ask again if they are such a great investment, why is Lear trying to dump their inventory of gold coins for cold hard cash?

March 16th, 2007 Tencentsashine says: Most reputable investor websites are quick to cite the credentials of their leadership, yet none are available on goldcentral.com. Who are these self-proclaimed experts - and please don't cite the public relations nonsense of these industry groups - if that's your strongest credential, yikes! No one is answering the question: if these investments are so wonderful, why aren't the big investment houses buying them up?
[End samablog]

Thank you for ALL the responsible and detailed replies.

We are investigating whether you had a similar experience at Lear and would greatly appreciate it if you could call us to so that we could determine if you also were subject to Lear's wrongful conduct alleged by our client. I look forward to hearing from you in this regard. Dion-Kindem & Crockett WOODLAND HILLS, CA.

In the future look for more blog, investor and employee information that has been helpful regarding Lear Financial aka goldcentral.com and Kevin Demeritt.

Soon you will find out the answers to:

Is Lear Financial Inc., aka Goldcentral.com of Santa Monica, California using major US advertisers to KNOWINGLY deceive investors?

Each day MORE SAY, YES.

If true, the following list of advertisers should drop Lear Financial from their advertising spots for the allegations of criminal acts and wrongdoings perpetrated against American investors, its customers, potential customers and employees.

FOXNEWS Television
Rush Limbaugh
AM Coast to Coast with Art Bell & George Norrey
Michael Medved
Laura Ingraham
Dennis Prager
World Magazine & dozens of others

And have government agencies such as the US Postal services and US bank institutions unknowingly moved hundreds of millions of investment dollars due to what many allege as the wrongful, illegal or criminal activities of Kevin DeMeritt's enterprises?

Finally, for those who are waiting to here from an attorney please be patient, response time is hindered by our responsibility to acknowledge research and secure accurate information.

Hello, my name is Kevin DeMeritt, and I am the owner of Lear Financial, the precious metals company referenced by "Del" in the attached post. For the last ten years, Lear Financial has been a leader in the precious metals industry, consistently getting the highest reviews for quality, integrity and customer service. I demand that my employees conduct themselves openly and honestly, and I apply the same standards to myself.

We have had literally thousands of satisfied customers over the years, and the few complaints that invariably arise are handled swiftly, and always with the clients' needs in mind.

I do not want to descend into a "mud-slinging" match with Del, the person who originally claimed responsibility for these allegations. We already have a forum for airing our differences; there is an arbitration pending between us and a point-by-point rebuttal here would only give dignity to baseless allegations that deserve no further comment. But so that there is no mistake, Del once worked at Lear, he was indeed terminated, and he is now suing my company. The rest of Del's allegations are simply untrue.

If you are interested in learning more about my company, please visit our website, goldcental.com where, among other things, you can review Lear's standard contract, which fully discloses the "spread" applicable to each transaction.

In fact, our contract contains disclosures above and beyond that required by law, because it is my belief that purchasing precious metals is too important a decision to be made blindly. If you still have additional questions about Lear's standards and practices or, indeed, have other issues that you wish to discuss, I would be happy to personally answer any questions you may have.

In sum, I hope that you will give Lear Financial the benefit of the doubt. Lear Financial is a professionally run business that demands the highest ethical conduct from its employees, and we do not tolerate any conduct that could bring disrepute to the company. I come from Montana, a place where business is conducted on a handshake. If you want to stop by, I will shake yours. Thanks for listening.

Kevin DeMeritt, President
Lear Financial