Tom PowellCONMAN Nigel Goldman claims to have been ‘hounded by the international press, national reporters and private detectives’ in an interview with an English local newspaper.
Since the Olive Press’ exclusive report on Goldman’s quaint village hideout in Kintbury, Berkshire, the story has featured in the Birmingham Mail, The Times, The Telegraph and the Daily Mail.
Goldman, now using the name Howard Del Monte, told the Newbury Weekly News in a plea for sympathy that he never intended anyone to lose out in his financial investment schemes.
“I was always careful to ensure people weren’t investing life savings and that they could afford to trade,” he claimed.
However, the Olive Press has proof of numerous investors who have indeed lost their life savings to Goldman and are still desperately trying to have him brought to justice.
He added: “The writ in Spain is for €650,000 and I very much regret that anyone had to lose money.”
But again Goldman, or Del Monte as he is called throughout the interview, is being economical with the truth. The €650,000 is one of many writs issued against him in Spain.
He is apparently known around the village as ‘Howie’, and can be found playing poker in the Blue Ball pub every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday night, according to a resident.
In his book ‘High Stakes’, in which he describes going to jail twice for fraud, Goldman admits to being an addicting gambler and risking client’s money on the poker table.
Goldman explained that his latest investment adventure began in 2008 when he won a trading competition on Talk Radio Europe, when it was REM, turning €100,000 into €2.7 million.
“After that, I was approached by many expats, but because of my convictions under the Companies Act of 1948 for offences in the 1980s, the only way client funds could be handled was by trading through an off-shore entity,” said Goldman.
But the crash eventually came in 2012, apparently. “It all went wrong over a 24-hour period, very badly wrong,” he claimed.
“My portfolio was completely wiped out. I had only taken my eye off the ball for an hour but sometimes that’s all it takes.
“I was totally unable to operate. I decided to come back to the UK. I was out of money, selling personal assets to pay clients.
“The mistake I made was coming back without explaining fully what had happened and why I was leaving. I could have handled that much better.
“But the Spanish press have started a campaign against me.”
He said he still fears extradition to Spain, with the pressure growing on him exponentially since the Olive Press unearthed his hiding place.
Meanwhile he continues to sell coins and antiques through an eBay account called ‘Bensons Emporium’.
Does it not also say in that paper that the metropolitan police have no record of any complaints against Goldman? In your last article, you said that Antonio Flores was handling 12 cases against Goldman, and yet when the NWN paper interviewed Flores, the disgraced lawyer admitted to only representing one client. This is definitely selective reporting on your part.
I have read the latest column on this case and also what has been printed in your paper and there are MANY ERRORS AND INCONSISTENCIES – it seems the Olive Press have been telling quite a few porkies about this to make sensational headlines, and if Goldman was such a wanted man, and you disclosed exactly where he lives over a week ago, why have the Police not picked him up yet?
Could it be he is not quite as wanted as you are making out?
“I was approached by many ex-pats …” only because this convicted fraudster advertised himself with a regular feature on Spectrum FM Almeria in which the station owner interviewed Goldman about his financial prowess and how much profit he supposedly made for his ‘clients’. In these conversations, Goldman pretended to be in his ‘trading room’ and babbled about £/Euro exchange rates and gold prices to convince unsuspecting ex-pats he was a financial expert. He ran a ‘fantasy portfolio’ that Spectrum featured on its Facebook page. Even once he was on the run, the station still called him and Goldman once claimed he was speaking from the floor of the London Stock Exchange. Ha ha! I have yet to hear Spectrum FM explain or apologise to its listeners who were taken in by these regular, cosy chats which the radio station created with a convicted fraudster who had written a book about the crimes he was jailed for in the UK.
Mr Hardcastle is not correct in what he is saying here. Goldman was approached by exPats after winning the beat the broker competition on REM radio in 2008 (Maurice Boland’s old station) NOT Spectrum FM Almeria. He didn’t start the fantasy portfolio on Spectrum FM Almeria until 2011.
I followed the Spectrum FM portfolio every day. He did wonders and turned a handsome profit each month in the main. His downfall came at the end when he called the markets wrong, and that is probably how his clients ended up with a zero balance. I think it is important to get the facts straight on this.
A further point or two, if I may.
You disclosed Goldman’s exact whereabouts in your excellent paper 8 days ago. Why have the Police not been to arrest him?
Surely a man wanted so badly would have been arrested by now?
Typically Spanish reported the denuncia against Goldman on the internet some weeks ago. It was from 12 clients, totalling 600k or so. Maybe your estimates arent quite right on the total number of writs, as there only appears to be one in existance for this sum.
What about all the clients who profitted handsomelly from Goldman’s trading when he called the markets right? Are they going to be asked to repay the losers from their profits as per Bernie Madoff?
So Olive Press, are you afraid to post this comment as I have already submitted it without it being added to your comments. If so, it very much does show what kind of reporting you do, selective as I mentioned before.
Submitted earlier, not printed:
Does it not also say in that paper that the metropolitan police have no record of any complaints against Goldman? In your last article, you said that Antonio Flores was handling 12 cases against Goldman, and yet when the NWN paper interviewed Flores, the lawyer admitted to only representing one client. This is definitely selective reporting on your part.
Goldman was first on Spectrum FM Almeria in November 2010. When the owner of the radio said that Goldman had been a friend of his late father for over 20 years and that he himself had known him for years. Goldman did not just take money from to trade on the markets, he took amounts with a return every month invested for a one year period. These were not paid back and neither was the interest. He just gambled it and lived a high life of champagne and drugs.Goldman was still on this radio station 5 days a week until the middle of October 2013. When Shanley was asked where was Nigel in November he said he was taking a real in the UK.He knew everything Goldman was doing and he did admit he got his money back from Goldman. .So Anton get your facts correct in respect of the Mojacar area
Anton, what nonsense. “I followed the Spectrum FM portfolio every day. He did wonders and turned a handsome profit each month in the main. ”
He made the figures up as he went along! Easy to make a “profit” when you just look at the daily numbers and invent your own to make them look good! What a load of crap.
Philip, you obviously have no understanding of trading. I followed his trades, fantasy or otherwise, and put on the exact same trades on my platform. I made a lot of money. Tax free. He stated quite clearly whether he was buying or selling, at the exact rate that was prevelant at the time, what he was buying or selling commodities, indices, etc (long or short) and where the current price lay. You can’t make that up – its there for everyone to see in black and white on many platforms all over the world.
Well Anton or should we say Nigel because that is who you are. Just like your secretary Michael Wilson, all your alias. You are a liar and a cheat. You are about and out thief. I have been in touch with the police and when you are sent back to Spain it will not be as safe as when you did your time in England
I request that the Olive Press deletes this message from David Franklin as it provokes, attacks and offends me.
How right you are David Franklin( he will not get away with hiding behind these aliases) I am the victim that first went to the Lawyer Antonio and showed the evidence of the con,which was pre planned and he admitted it to me,HOW IS IT THE SPANISH POLICE WILL NOT ISSUE THE WARRANT.I would really love to understand why it has taken up to now, eight months, to arrest this conman. Insidently he was very well aware that the money he had from me was the only money I had, I am a pensioner of seventy five years and yes there is no fool like an old fool. WELL DONE TO ‘THE OLIVE PRESS’ you have achieved more than the whole might of the Spanish Police which we know is very considerable when they want to use it
NG does seem to have lived the high life on other peoples money
and if he has been accused of taking money from even one person i would of thought should of been interviewed by the Police in the UK or Spain for fraud
I know someone in the UK was convicted of fraud of 60K GBP
they got 4 years
Poker night at the Blue Ball,Kintbury near Hungerford.
Must try it out, plenty of easy cash to be made!
You would have thought they could just bring him in for questioning, look at the transactions to see if the money was invested via a trading platform and lost or if he put the money in his own bank account, view all bank transactions etc.I am down £15k in the last two weeks on the UK stock market where a few shares have gone down but they will probably go back up and I should make a good profit. I have a record of my holdings and transactions, it is all electronic. A bit reckless to wipe out all of your funds though.
Once a conman, always a conman. Goldman has already spent time in prison for bilking clients out millions. Now he’s done it again. He was operating a typical Ponzi Pyramid Scheme. Initial investors are shown phony interest profits in the beginning in order to lure more investors. Eventually, the bottom falls out as it does in all Ponzi Schemes. —anyone heard of Maddoff?, he’s the king of Ponzi. Goldman has probably hidden the millions he stole, in foreign banks.
Interesting observation by David Franklin – since ‘Stan Osborn’ and ‘Anton’ are both posting comments from the same IP address in the UK! We remind any alleged victims of Goldman to contact the Olive Press by email: newsdesk@theolivepress.es
thank you web master…..best bit of reporting for ages!!……just joshing
It seems clear from the above comments that “WHOEVER” this NG claims to be in emails, the Attorney for those injured in giving NG their money, should get their Attorney to File for a European Arrest Warrant for NG. Even though the UK police are known to be abit “slow in law enforcement”, they will be forced to react to apprehend NG knowing his residence in the UK… or put out a APB to apprehend him. Then he’ll be tried in Spain where the alledged criminal acts took place against those injured. Key point will be SIGNED AGREEMENTS by those injured that NG informed them of the RISKS of their LOSS BEFORE they gave him money. THAT is what got the Banks to pay!
It is widely reported that these investors’ of Goldman’s lost their money through a “fake” investment portfolio Ponzi scheme in Morocco. Surely the point is; did Goldman know it was a Ponzi! I am guessing of course he did, he probably set it up himself! These latest interview comments from him make it sound as though it was a legit investment scheme trading in stokes and commodities, where of course values of investments can go down as well as up, so that’s his way of trying to talk his way out of it; stating it was legit! But with a Ponzi someone or a number of people within the scheme, probably including Goldman still have the money, unless he just paid out too much and the rest was frozen, who knows! Another point to take into consideration perhaps is that although many investors appear to be UK citizens living in Spain, Goldman´s Company and his investments were in Morocco, a country that is not a member of the EU! It is my guess that this is why no police or legal action have been taken yet; because in which country´s jurisdiction does any illegal activity fall? Him coming out from hiding and making statements are just an attempt to worm his way out of the situation. He is a twice convicted and imprisoned fraudster, why did anyone with a modicum of common sense invest even a cent with him? I am unclear as to why the Olive Press has claimed he has lost over €2.5 million of investors´ money where other press state it´s €600,000. Perhaps someone at Olive Press can explain this discrepancy please?
I have also just noticed that the ebay account Olive Press quoted previously http://stores.ebay.co.uk/bensonsemporium/ has stop selling! Is he on the run again?
The real problem is that the Costa del Sol, while a lovely place to retire to, is brimming with dreamers, con-men and the desperate and lost. I have never met so many financially incompetent “professionals” in my life as in my last few years living here. Many are just crooks.
I am sure there are SOME, good, reputable and honest advisers here, but really – I would strongly urge any non-Spanish nationals to get their advice and deals from regulated firms in their country of origin.
As an ex Stockbroker myself I am amazed at how many outright thieves I have met down here. I feel so sorry for their victims. Live here – invest elsewhere. That’s my advice.
As to the Goldman case – it does not look good for anyone does it? At best it looks like unregulated incompetence but given his previous convictions, it seems remiss of customers, the press, radio and local people not have looked into his past. The recent European ruling that will stop Google giving unedited historical results of past convictions and ‘mistakes’ will cause many more victims in future scams who otherwise would have been able to check people out. How on earth anyone would entrust Goldman with any money though given that he had written a book about his previous problems – that is beyond me.
I would like to ask the Olive Press one thing though – while the Goldman story looks to be damn good investigative journalism from where I sit (well done!) – is there any mileage in just exposing his friends and in the articles just falling short of implying that they might be accomplices (in spirit at least)? I know nothing of Barry Nathan other than the fact he would not get a job as presenter on a professional UK radio station (in my opinion), but apart from seemingly having some dodgy friends, has he done anything wrong? Many crooks are charming – that’s how they get their victims in the first place. I personally would prefer to see the Olive Press concentrate on:
1)Explaining how so many unregulated advisers and crooks can operate financial scams so frequently in Spain
2) Exposing the many other crooks on the coast.
3) Exposing the scams themselves
and
4) Exposing why the authorities are not arresting and convicting the above.
Anyway, I would hate to see your efforts turn into potentially mere personal vendettas as the need to provide investigative clarity in Spain is a great thing all round.
My wife and I met Nigel Goldman at a dinner party 5 years ago. He was dating a friend of ours. Something about the guy didn’t seem right so after we returned home that night we did a Google search on him. Up popped his name and history of prison time for committing fraud. We informed our friend and she dropped him like a hot potato. At the time, Goldman was getting back on his feet. He drove an old beat up car and lived in a small apartment in Fuengirola. ——-You would think that the EWNwould have made an effort to check this guy out before allowing him to promote a professional image of himself in their newspaper. Goldman wrote a weekly restaurant review and they provided him the tools to prey on unsuspecting readers.
I first encountered this fraudster back in the late 1970s. I knew he was a crook then and nothing has changed, unless perhaps for the worse! Goldman is a master of guilt denial. His ebay shop Benson’s Emporium sold £1000’s in fake silver bullion either in the form of plated coin or ingots. He recently changed his feedback settings to private, another example of his guilt denial, but you can see the figures and I bet all 19 negatives are for people who now realise he has conned them. Nigel will no doubt shortly claim on here that he was himself duped by dishonest bullion dealers; will he be ‘Stan’ or ‘Anton’?
I got ripped off by Bensons Emporium, I don’t know how he go the 40000 mostly positive feedback, I’m now thinking that he and Suzanne purchased someone else’s ebay account to set up this con. I purchased 7 gold Kugerrands which never turned up.
Let’s hope this man gets put in prison so we don’t have to hear his name anymore on this site. One con man out of thousands.
Unless we’d get a weekly review of ‘Nigel Goldman Behind Bars’ maybe. That could work?
That’s a brilliant idea. Goldwing giving a weekly review from behind bars.
Any further developments in this case?