Three men in the US state of New Jersey are facing fresh charges relating to alleged letter of credit (L/C) frauds.

The men are accused of cheating two companies and an Iowa farmer out of more than US$1 million by offering phoney L/Cs.

Origional charges

Four US citizens - Jerrid Douglas, James Adkins and Harold Mignott from New Jersey and Roy Gillar who resides in Las Vegas, Nevada - were originally indicted in December 2017 with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud.

Douglas and Gillar were also charged with money laundering criminal proceeds.

Additional counts

The latest indictment adds additional counts of wire fraud against Adkins, Douglas and Mignott.

They are now accused of offering the two companies and the farmer phoney standby L/Cs.

Mexican gold

One company that needed a standby L/C to buy raw gold overseas and sell it to gold refineries entered into a joint-venture agreement with the accused.

They defendants said they would provide a standby L/C backed by Mexican gold bonds to make way for the transaction, but the document they provided their victim turned out to be fraudulent and worthless.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or Coastline Solutions.