Northwest Territorial Mint in Federal Way files for bankruptcy after court judgment | Update

Published 1:34 pm Monday, April 4, 2016

Ross B. Hansen, owner of Federal Way-based Northwest Territorial Mint LLC, filed for bankruptcy on Friday following a $38.3 million judgment in a defamation lawsuit.

Northwest Territorial Mint executed the Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 31 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Washington after their assets were frozen in the March 1 judgment. Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows the debtor to outline a reorganization plan so the business can continue operating and pay creditors over time.

According to court documents, Northwest Territorial Mint owes money to between 200-999 people.

A Feb. 18 jury verdict ruled that Hansen was guilty of defaming Bradley S. Cohen of Cohen Asset Management Inc. when Hansen created a website, bradley-cohen.com, that compared Cohen to Bernie Madoff, a former stockbroker who was convicted of running a Ponzi scheme.

Ironically, customers of Northwest Territorial Mint are saying it’s Hansen who is the fraudster.

“Seriously, I’m concerned it’s a Ponzi scheme,” said Federal Way resident Elizabeth Meshkoff.

Meshkoff said she invested $1,008 into 63 silver coins on March 3, well after Hansen had heard the jury’s verdict and two days after the $38.3 million judgment, of which he owes approximately $12.5 million.

Meshkoff said the receipt she and her husband received when they purchased the silver said the mint didn’t have that much silver on-hand so it would be three to four weeks before it was ready.

They have yet to receive the silver and don’t expect to see their money back.

After learning it wasn’t ready by March 29, the Meshkoffs turned to the mint for answers but were told the mint was served a judgment saying they “weren’t allowed to pay money out to anyone and they weren’t allowed to make any other statements or transactions at the time.”

“I saw two security guards, my husband saw three security guards, two receptionists – I mean, they’re fully functioning: telephones ringing, people coming in and out doing business the whole time we were there.” Meshkoff said. “So, they’re still operating, and at that point, that’s all that we’ve been told. That we can’t get our money back.”

Meshkoff said employees at Northwest Territorial Mint said they had coins in their vault, but those were for “future transactions.”

“… Which is very concerning to me because they’re still doing business and taking money from consumers and citizens,” she said. “They have our $1,000 and they have several hundreds of people’s money, apparently, so it’s very concerning.”

The Mirror received several emails from people who believe they’ve lost their money after doing business with the mint.

Zack Barrett said he invested $8,000 in silver in two orders for his grandchildren’s college fund. He noticed something was wrong with one of his orders after the mint said they couldn’t fulfill it because of the high volume of people buying silver.

He said he’s called the mint daily.

Although he received his refund for the first order, the second one is still outstanding.

“I got a weird email stating something is going on with the company and they will let us know,” Barrett wrote in an email. “They have no [intentions] of paying me back. The crazy thing is, they are still doing business on the Internet. That should be fraud. They are still taking orders. Someone needs to stop them.”

Robert Michael of Issaquah ordered $6,200 worth of silver and said he was also told it would take several weeks for his order to be fulfilled. When he discovered the judgment against the company, he too went to the mint and asked for gold coins that were equal to the thousands of dollars he’d paid. He was told they didn’t have that much in their vault, yet they were able to sell what was available.

“What was really bad is the lady, Erin, told me that I could not get equal trade for what was in the vault in coins and they did not have enough anyway,” Michael said. “She said if people do walk in with cash they would sell what they did have. Well, this irked me much more so I contacted the attorney that got the judgement and told him they were selling assets to walk-in customers and I had proof.”

A day later, Michael said Hansen called him and was “very agitated.”

“He asked me if I was stupid for contacting the attorney that was keeping me from my money,” he said. “I told him I could not discuss and would end the call. He then asked me if I would just listen and calmly proceeded to tell me how some Hollywood slick guy was trying to ruin him.”

Michael said he ended the conversation politely and was “quite concerned” that the attorney who represented Cohen gave his contact information to Hansen.

“I called that attorney because I personally felt monies owed to me were being held and Mr. Hansen was selling assets and maybe keeping cash,” Michael said. “After he called me I was somewhat concerned that this guy may not be too happy with me and I just need to watch my back.”

Meshkoff said she’s contacted the police department and filed a police report and she’s contacted the Attorney General’s Office, the FBI and the city of Federal Way to stop the business.

“It puts a black eye on our city, that this man continues to keep his doors open and every agency that I call, from the mayor’s office to the Attorney General’s Office, knows about this man’s practices and says that there’s nothing we can do,” she said. “And he continues to operate.”

In addition to reporting the alleged fraud, she also filed a small claims lawsuit against Hansen and Northwest Territorial Mint.

“We’re just so thankful it was $1,000 and that there are people who are aware of the situation,” she said,” and [we] hope that this man will be… his doors will be closed.”

This isn’t the first time Hansen and Northwest Territorial Mint have had run-ins with the law and serious customer complaints.

In the last three years, 263 complaints have been filed against the mint on the Better Business Bureau’s website, with 220 of those closed by the company in the last year. There are also more than 130 complaints filed with the Washington state Attorney General’s Office.

This past September, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against Hansen that said he sexually harassed former employees. He allegedly made comments to three female employees that ranged from lewd sexual comments, offensive jokes, derogatory terms for women, remarks on their breast sizes, body shapes, questions about personal matters, screaming and name-calling.

In 2008, the Washington state Attorney General’s Office settled with the mint, when it was based in Auburn, in a case that alleged the business sold metals online but failed to deliver the items by the promised date. The company was ordered to pay $20,000 in civil penalties and $38,000 in state attorneys’ fees.

According to a 1995 Seattle Times article, Kent police arrested Hansen in 1989 after a large drug bust paved a “financial trail” to Hansen. In the seizure of more than 1 ton of marijuana, police had also picked up $600,000 worth of silver, gold and palladium, which had been sold from Hansen to the drug dealer.

Charges in that case were never filed against Hansen because of a then-new state law that precluded prosecutors from proving Hansen had broken the law. Instead, he was charged with “avoiding federal tax-reporting requirements” and gun possession. After pleading guilty, he served three years in prison.

The Mirror attempted to contact Hansen but received no reply.