MORE ON THE NATIONAL GOLD EXCHANGE

National Gold Exchange is not well known in the Tampa Bay area, but it's a big player in gold and rare coins and antique music boxes, which are large automatic music machines. The company keeps a low profile in Carrollwood, where it's tucked into a brick strip mall on North Dale Mabry Highway. Its only sign reads a vague "NGE."

In testimony Monday, Sovereign Bank executive Elizabeth Sousa said bank examiners found a host of accounting errors and possible fraud at National Gold Exchange, which led them to declare the company in default of its loans last month. The bank is worried about the $35 million in loans it has extended to National Gold Exchange, which are secured by the rare coins and music boxes.

Among other things, the bank alleges the company may have sold up to $15 million in coins – which were collateral for its loans – to help pay for Mark Yaffe's $25 million home in Tampa's Avila community. McIntyre said Mark Yaffe has offered to use his equity in the home as collateral for the Sovereign Bank loans.

To read the complete article, see: Leading rare coin dealers lose control of Tampa business (http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/aug/03/
leading-rare-coin-dealers-lose-control-tampa-busin/)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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