Buckhead Estate Connected to Investment Scheme

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A Buckhead estate has been targeted for seizure by the federal government after investigators connected the homeowners to a fraudulent investment scheme.

The home at Valley and Tuxedo Roads is owned by Jim and Laurette Shaw, cofounders of the Sterling Currency Group, who are accused of participating in a scheme to swindle investors out of $600 million by selling Iraqi Dinars falsely promising that the currency would one day recover its value. As of Thursday, one Iraqi Dinar is worth $0.00084.

WSB-TV says that the government also wants to seize a Brookhaven home, Florida beach houses, and airplanes. The Brookhaven home of Sterling cofounder Ty Rhame and Rhame’s Brookhaven office were raided by the FBI last week.

According to the company’s website, Sterling Currency Group was founded shortly after the regime of Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003 ”as a way of making the new Iraqi Dinar (IQD) available to individuals and organizations in the U.S. without direct access to the currency exchange markets in the Middle East.

Our business model is built upon integrity and transparency, and we strive to give superior value to our customers every day.”

The Associated Press reports that Sterling Currency Group misled investors and claimed that the value of the Dinar would soon skyrocket. As far back as 2012, Forbes Magazine reported on Sterling and a press release which claimed that the Dinar was performing well on the global currency exchange, despite the Iraqi Dinar not being traded on any legitimate currency exchanges.