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Silly Mormons. You got tricked by a Nigerian-born confidence man...and it wasn't even the Prince who is in jail. I mean who wouldn't believe that a record producer from California needs millions of dollars to broker a deal of 20,000 tons of gold (more than double the US reserve, the biggest in the world) between a group of Israelis and some Arab buyers.

Oh it gets better:

Jones was more flamboyant than either Simburg, who lived in a bungalow near the Los Angeles airport, or Jennings, who had a small house in Perris, 70 miles east of the city. He used investor money to buy a $1.5 million home in Marina del Rey and a $277,000 Ferrari Spider for his wife, according to court- appointed receiver Richard Weissman.

He showed up for meetings in a chauffeur-driven limousine wearing loud, custom-made suits and a bowler hat, at times bringing his wife, Yekaterina Jones, an aspiring singer and Russian model, says a person who met with him on several occasions.

So, the Mormons finally smarten up and confront the scam artist Mormon-style:

Several of them, angry about the repeated delays, confronted Simburg and Jones in Los Angeles on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 1, 2004, according to Craig Mason, the lead FBI agent on the case. Jones had told them he couldn’t meet because he was in Europe, Mason says. When they went to the office of his music company, Marina Investors Group Inc., they found him hiding under a desk.

Three days later, Jones said on a conference call, according to a transcript of the meeting, that he had concealed his whereabouts because he was being shadowed by “men in white trousers circling the building in odd hours of the night.” If investors gave him a little more time, Jones said on the call, he would provide proof that the gold deal was about to succeed.

“So we only have to wait another few hours for the documentation?” asked one investor, who wasn’t identified. “I think it’s worth our while to do that.”

You don't have to be so nice all the time Mormons. I keep picturing those Church of Latter Day Saints commercials with the little boy holding a sign that says, "That's my sister." This man is going to get me some more money so I can do the work of the Lord like when he showed up in Nevada, gee willikers. Stop falling for gold scams Mormons. First, there was Joseph Smith and his gold plates, and now Henry Jones and his gold deal. You are all so nice and naive, I don't know how you haven't been wiped off the planet yet.

Oh, the capper was when one of the guys who invested his life savings killed himself because he finally realized he got conned and Jones, the guy who conned him, asked the guy's brother to invest some more money at the funeral. He did.

-K