THE GOLDFINGER MURDER

You won't find this story on the pages of Coin World, Numismatic News or The Numismatist. You may have seen the story on NBC's "Dateline" TV program. Or, you can read about it this week in The E-Sylum.

James and Pamela Fayed were millionaires from their successful business, Goldfinger Coin and Bullion Sales. However, money cannot assure happiness and there was trouble in their marriage.

James Michael Fayed was born in Washington, D.C., on February 5, 1963. He was working in 1998 as an electrical contractor on a military base.

Pamela Goudie was born in Tennessee on August 30, 1964, and grew up in Salt Lake City. She was trained as a jeweler and worked in shops in Southern California. When she met James in 1998, she was a single mother of an 18-year-old daughter.

James and Pamela were introduced by friends on a motorcycle ride. Their daughter, Jeanette, was born in January of 1999. After an appropriate wait, they were married five months later. A year after the birth of their daughter, James filed for divorce but withdrew his claim two weeks later.

Goldfinger was incorporated in 2000 and went on-line on the Fourth of July 2001. They were affiliated with a website, e-Bullion. This was used to facilitate the trade of precious metals, gold, silver and platinum. They offered e-Bullion as a digital gold currency (DGC). They were the first to offer a credit card so transactions could be made through an ATM.

By 2008, the company had a million clients and gold reserves of 50,000 ounces in their vaults in Los Angeles and at The Perth Mint in Australia. Although the company may have been legitimate, it was used by clients to conduct fraud. money laundering and Ponzi schemes.

The couple was moving up in the world. They had a house in Camarillo and bought a 200-acre ranch in Moorpark in Venture County they called "Happy Camp Ranch."

James Fayed filed for divorce in October 2007. Pamela told her sister-in-law that everything about Fayed disgusted her. At the time the couple had assets of 12 million dollars. Pamela told prosecutors that she wanted to cooperate with an investigation into their gold trading business. James wanted to keep Pamela away from the business they owned jointly.

James and Pamela met with their divorce attorneys on August 28, 2008. Pamela left about 6:30 to get her car in the Watt Plaza parking garage at 1875 Century Park East in Century City, California. She was stabbed thirteen times by a hooded assailant and died soon after the attack.

Video surveillance showed, as Pamela's screams echoed through the parking ramp, James sat on a bench calmly texting on his phone. A red Suzuki SUV seen leaving the garage was rented with a credit card linked to Fayed's company. Cell phone records place three defendants near the scene at the time of the crime.

His conversations with a jailhouse informant were recorded. Fayed complained that the killers were incompetent. They had missed the opportunity to kill Pamela at a Fourth of July party. Instead, they chose a well-lighted parking ramp with surveillance cameras. On the recording, Fayed also asked his cellmate to hire a fictitious hitman to solicit the murder of Jose Moya to silence him. During this conversation, Fayed drew a sketch of the ranch to show the hitman where to find the potential victim.

Just three days after the murder, Fayed was arrested on August 1 and charged with operating an illegal money transferring business. The charges were withdrawn when Fayed was charged with murder.

Fayed was put on trial for the murder on October 8, 2008. Also on trial was Fayed's ranch employee, Jose Luis Moya. Authorities alleged that Fayed paid Moya $25,000 to arrange with gang members the murder of Pamela. Both pleaded not guilty.

Fayed was found guilty on May 19, 2011, of first-degree murder and conspiracy plus special circumstances for killing by lying in wait and for financial gain. He was sentenced to death on November 17, 2011. This went through a series of appeals.

California Governor Newsom signed an executive order suspending executions during his term. There has not been an execution in California since 2006. However, more than 500 inmates remain under a death sentence.

Jose Luiz Moya was convicted of the same charges on February 20, 2015, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He drove the getaway car. In 2026 he is at California State Prison, Centinela.

Steven Vicente Simmons was the nephew of Gabriel Marquiz. He had several driving violations but no felony charges. Two years later he was arrested for the murder on June 14, 2010. It was believed that he was the actual killer. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. In 2026 he is at the Wasco State Prison in Los Angeles.

Gabriel Jay Marquez was the boyfriend of Jose Moya's niece. He was arrested for the murder on June 14, 2010, while in jail in Ventura. He had a long criminal record. He was convicted on February 20, 2015, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. In 2026 he is at California State Prison, Corcoran.

Fayed's case made it all the way to the United States Supreme Court. In 2025, he claimed that his confession was invalid because he had been unlawfully denied bail. His claim was denied.

The government seized the company assets amounting to about $24 million dollars in July 2012. This was distributed back to thousands of company clients in 2014 to 2019.

In 2026, James Fayed is at the California Health Care Facility in Stockton, California.

The NBC series "Dateline NBC" carried the story of "The Goldfinger Mystery." It was broadcast on January 20, 2012.

Apple TV told the story with "A Glittering Murder – American Greed Deadly Rich" broadcast on July 23, 2018.

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