SHAMOKIN DAM - A 36-year-old Florida-based precious metals dealer has been charged with numerous misdemeanor offenses, including failure to maintain proper records of transactions and posting of prices, during a gold and silver buy-back event Nov. 9 and 10 at the Hampton Inn in Shamokin Dam.
Brian Bartholomew, an employee with Blackthorn Estate Buyers, Boca Raton, Fla., was released on bail after being charged with more than 20 counts of the state violations. He is scheduled to face a preliminary hearing on the charges at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the office of Magisterial District Judge Edward Mihalik in Selinsgrove.
Police said the violations include the absence of visible licenses, weights, permits, identification, sales receipts and current prices.
Bartholomew's motives for failing to comply with the requirements are unknown.
Shamokin Dam police seized the items that had been purchased at the sale on Nov. 9 and 10.
According to a criminal complaint filed at Mihalik's office by Shamokin Dam Police Chief Timothy Bremigen, local sellers voiced concerns to Snyder County District Attorney Michael Piecuch's office after a buy-back event in October. The local sellers were used as informants in an investigation conducted by Shamokin Dam police and Snyder County Detective William R. Neitz Jr.
According to court documents, police could not find sales slips with information required by the Precious Metals statute. In one bag, there were at least 18 items that did not have information. A second bag contained coins that were not identified. A number of pink sales slips also were found in a garbage can, police said.
Although the company had a dealer's license for Snyder County, Piecuch said such a license is not hard to obtain.
The district attorney told the Daily Item, "The measure of their legitimacy is whether they can comply with simple regulations of the statute. And clearly, he wasn't."
The Precious Metals Law is designed to protect individuals who are considering selling gold, silver or platinum to a dealer. The requirements also allow police to track the resale of stolen items.
The third-degree misdemeanor offenses filed against Bartholomew are punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine of $2,500. The license of a convicted dealer is immediately revoked, and the dealer is banned from obtaining a new license for five years.