Federal prosecutors for the first time have publicly linked the recent slaying of a woman in a Century City parking garage to her estranged husband, revealing in court Monday that the SUV allegedly used by the killer had been rented using the husband's credit card.

The credit card was seized from the wallet of James Fayed during a recent search of his Moorpark ranch house, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark Aveis. The license plate of the vehicle was caught on security surveillance cameras and traced to an Avis rental car agency near Fayed's Camarillo business, he said.

Aveis' comments came as Fayed appeared in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to face felony charges of conducting unlicensed money transactions through the international gold trading company he ran with his wife, Pamela. Fayed, 45, was arrested Friday evening and remains in federal custody.

During the hearing, Aveis told U.S. Magistrate Judge Ralph Zarefsky that Fayed presented a danger to the community, was a flight risk and should not be allowed to post bail.

But Zarefsky said the evidence that Fayed had attempted to obstruct justice by killing his wife so she wouldn't testify against him in the federal case was "pretty thin."

He ordered the defendant released on $500,000 bond but gave prosecutors until Wednesday to appeal his decision.

Fayed, dressed in a brown T-shirt and plaid pajama-style pants, sat expressionless as the prosecutor argued his case, recounting a meeting this summer between Fayed and his wife, who were in the midst of a bitter divorce.

Aveis said Fayed told his wife, "I could have you killed and my hands would be clean." He said the defendant then made a motion as if he were wiping his hands, according to an account Pamela Fayed gave a friend.

In addition to the credit card, authorities seized $60,000, some of it sealed in plastic wrap, and $3 million in gold bullion at Fayed's house, Aveis said. Twenty-five weapons including assault rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition were also seized, he said.

Though Fayed has not been charged in his wife's slaying, Aveis said he had a motive to have her killed -- "so that she could not testify against him" in the criminal case at issue in Monday's hearing.

Los Angeles Police Capt. Bill Eaton said Monday that Fayed has not been named as a suspect in his wife's death.

Fayed's attorney, Mark Werksman, told Zarefsky that the prosecutor's claims were based on third-hand information from a rookie FBI agent who had only recently been briefed on the case.

"The government has rushed in here with uncorroborated, unsubstantiated allegations of a murder," he said.

Pamela Fayed, 45, was attacked by a man with a knife July 28 in the parking garage of a Century City high-rise, investigators said. The perpetrator was "lying in wait," Aveis said.

The prosecutor said Pamela and James Fayed and their attorneys were scheduled to meet at the office complex to discuss legal matters.

According to the LAPD, several witnesses said they saw a red SUV speed away from the floor of the parking garage where Pamela Fayed was slain. Surveillance cameras captured the SUV with a man at the wheel leaving the parking lot and driving down the street at high speed moments after the killing, police said.

Los Angeles police detectives investigating Pamela Fayed's slaying have been looking for possible links between her death and the couple's jointly owned companies, Goldfinger Coin and Bullion Sales and an associated Internet firm, e-Bullion, law enforcement sources have said.

Police searched James Fayed's home looking for evidence in the homicide investigation last week.

Aveis characterized Fayed's business operations during 2005 and 2006 as Ponzi schemes in which individuals invested up to $20 million.

James Fayed filed for divorce in October, and the couple had since fought bitterly over control of the companies.

Pamela Fayed, who remained in the couple's Camarillo home after they separated, said in court papers that the couple had bank accounts worth $12 million and that her husband had been blocking her access to their business records.

She asked the court for "ground rules to protect our clients and personal assets."

James Fayed alleged in a court filing that his wife "has a history of making false accusations" and had threatened "to throw me in jail." He said that when he contemplated divorce in 2000, Pamela told him she would retaliate by claiming that he had assaulted her and sexually assaulted one of their daughters.

The couple had two children, an 18-year-old daughter from Pamela's first marriage, and a 9-year-old daughter.

The Fayeds' companies function as wholesalers of precious metals and provide trading services to individuals who wish to invest in gold and silver without the cost of storing, insuring and transporting bullion. Goldfinger and e-Bullion say they maintain their own bullion vaults in Los Angeles, Delaware, Switzerland and Australia.

Company literature says that account holders can access their funds through wire transfers and debit cards that can be used at ATMs to "convert gold to cash," as an e-Bullion executive put it in a 2002 news release. Such arrangements typically appeal to people who doubt the stability of the international monetary system and who believe they are insulating their wealth from a global collapse by tying it to the value of gold.

As the Fayeds' marriage crumbled, Pamela was seeking to have the family business treated as a separate entity as it related to their divorce proceedings, according to court filings.

She said she was doing so because she feared her husband was trying to hide some of their assets and stash stores of gold and silver in secret vaults. Pamela Fayed was killed on the eve of a court hearing at which the issue was expected to be addressed.
scott.glover@latimes.com
Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this story.

8-5
Judge orders Century City slaying victim's husband held without bail

The federal jurist said James Fayed was a flight risk and a threat to the community. Prosecutors have called him the 'primary suspect' in the killing.

By Scott Glover, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
5:07 PM PDT, August 6, 2008

A federal judge this afternoon ordered a man deemed by prosecutors as the "primary suspect" in the stabbing death last week of his estranged wife in a Century City parking lot to be held without bail pending his trial in an unrelated case involving the business he co-owned with the woman.

U.S. District Court Judge Otis D. Wright said he was persuaded by prosecutors' arguments that James Fayed was a flight risk and represented a danger to the community.

Slaying victim offered to help feds in...

	Prosecutors say car seen at site of woman's stabbing was rented with husband's credit card
	Woman stabbed in Century City had inquired about 'panic room' for home

Though Fayed has not been charged with his wife's slaying, Wright said, "I think the risk is too grave and I think the possibility of flight is too grave." He added that "sooner or later the other shoe is going to drop. He is going to remain in custody pending trial."

The hearing this afternoon came a day after documents filed in federal court indicated that Pamela Fayed had notified federal prosecutors that she wanted to cooperate in a criminal probe into the international gold trading business she owned with her estranged husband. According to the filing, she had made that decision a month before she was stabbed to death July 28 in the parking garage of a Century City high-rise.

In court today, however, James Fayed's defense attorneys disputed the assertion that Pamela had been cooperating with federal prosecutors at the time of her death and said that other factors weighed heavily in Wright's decision to hold James Fayed without bail.

He has been in custody since Friday on a federal charge of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.

Pamela Fayed's slaying came the day before she and her husband were due in court for a hearing in their divorce case.

In the Tuesday court filing, Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark Aveis said James Fayed was likely to be ordered to pay about $1 million in spousal support, attorney fees and court sanctions at that hearing.

Aveis called him "the primary suspect" in Pamela's death, and said he is a danger to the community and a flight risk and should be held without bail.

In an interview Tuesday, Mark Werksman, James Fayed's attorney, accused prosecutors of "trying to create this cloud over my client to prejudice a judge in a relatively minor money exchange case."

He added, "If they have evidence of him committing a murder to silence a federal witness, then they should file those charges."

Earlier in the week, Aveis told a federal magistrate judge that an SUV linked to the attack on Pamela Fayed was rented with a credit card bearing James Fayed's name. The prosecutor also said that Fayed had previously threatened his wife, with whom he was going through a bitter divorce, and said that he could have her killed "and my hands would be clean."

Citing this and other evidence, Aveis asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Ralph Zarefsky to detain Fayed without bail.

At that time Zarefsky denied the request, citing "pretty thin" evidence connecting the murder charge to the federal case, and set bail for Fayed at $500,000. He also ordered Fayed held until today to allow prosecutors to appeal his decision.

A day after his request for remand was denied, Aveis filed an 11-page appeal arguing that he needed only to show that Fayed was a danger and a flight risk, and that it wasn't necessary to connect those assertions to the federal case.

As part of his argument, Aveis wrote that Pamela Fayed's defense attorney notified government prosecutors June 24 that "Pamela wanted to cooperate" with their investigation.

Werksman, however, said Tuesday that even if Pamela Fayed had agreed to cooperate, "there's no way James would have known this. Therefore, there's no way this could have motivated him to commit a murder."

In addition, Werksman discounted the suggestion that a million-dollar payout would have been motivation for James Fayed to kill his wife, noting that there were millions of dollars tied up in the couples' business and finances.

Court filings indicate that as the Fayeds' marriage crumbled, Pamela was seeking to have the family business treated as a separate entity as it related to their divorce proceedings, according to court filings. She said she was doing so because she feared that her husband was trying to hide some of their assets and stash stores of gold and silver in secret vaults.

scott.glover@latimes.com

8-8 Stabbing victim may have told attorneys of threats against her

A Ventura County judge granted control of Pamela Fayed's affairs to her 18-year-old daughter, who is allowing attorneys to share the information with police. Fayed was killed in a Century City parking

By Catherine Saillant, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 8, 2008

A woman stabbed to death in a Century City parking garage may have confided in attorneys about threats on her life as she and her husband fought over ownership of their gold trading business, and that information could aid homicide investigators, a lawyer representing the dead woman's daughter told a judge Thursday.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Kent Kelligrew agreed and ordered that Pamela Fayed's daughter Desiree Goudie, 18, be appointed as a special administrator over her mother's affairs.

The authority allows Goudie to waive attorney-client privilege on behalf of her mother, clearing the way for Los Angeles police investigators to question Pamela Fayed's divorce and criminal lawyers on conversations they had with the woman in the months leading up to her July 28 death.

Helping police find her mother's killer is "paramount," said Goudie's attorney, Kenneth W. Kossoff of Westlake Village.

"This will help investigators determine what, if anything, that the attorneys for Mrs. Fayed may be able to shed light on the murder," Kossoff told the judge.

Fayed's estranged husband, James Fayed, has been called a "primary suspect" in his wife's death and is being held without bail as he awaits trial on an unrelated federal charge connected to the couple's international gold trading business.

Federal prosecutors have said that a credit card seized from Fayed's wallet was used to rent a red sport utility vehicle that witnesses saw leaving the scene of the attack.

James Fayed has not been charged in Pamela Fayed's death.

Goudie's appointment will also permit her to retrieve her mother's remains from the Los Angeles County morgue. Goudie, who did not speak during the brief hearing, wishes to bury her mother, her attorney told the judge.

Goudie is Pamela Fayed's daughter from a previous relationship. The Fayeds had one daughter together, Jeanett Fayed, 9. Goudie and her attorneys declined to say who is caring for the girl in the absence of both parents. When both primary guardians are unavailable, the court typically appoints a family member to care for children.

Goudie also asked the judge to give her control over her mother's interests in the gold trading business that the Fayeds operated during their eight-year marriage. A lawyer representing those companies -- Goldfinger Coin and Bullion, Goldfinger Bullion Reserve Corp., and e-Bullion -- objected, saying that the business had not been given enough time to respond to the emergency filings.

But Kelligrew said Goudie needed some control over the business to protect her mother's estate. The judge ruled that she would have control over documents and decisions that might help investigators in the murder case but not over those detailing business operations.

Pamela Fayed, 44, and James Fayed, 45, were going through a bitter divorce at the time of her killing. The Ventura County residents were fighting over their business assets, including $12 million in bank accounts and stores of gold and silver, according to court documents.

James Fayed was taken into federal custody last week on a charge of conducting unlicensed money transactions.

catherine.saillant@ latimes.com

8-19

Husband Of Slain Wife Enters Plea In Other Case

LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― The estranged husband of a woman stabbed to death in a Century City parking garage pleaded not guilty Monday in Los Angeles to a federal charge of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Eick ordered James Michael Fayed, 45, back to court on Sept. 15 for a status conference.

The trial is set to begin Sept. 30.

Deemed a flight risk, Fayed is being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Fayed's 44-year-old wife, Pamela, was killed July 28.

Fayed has not been charged in connection with the slaying, but prosecutors said in court documents that he is "the primary suspect" in her killing.

According to court documents filed by federal prosecutors, Pamela Fayed's criminal defense attorney notified prosecutors about a month before her slaying that she wanted to cooperate in a criminal probe into the businesses she owned with her estranged husband.

Prosecutors allege that the killer's getaway car had been rented with James Fayed's credit card, which police later found in his wallet.

Fayed was arrested Aug. 1 on a federal charge of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.

James Fayed's attorney, Mark Werksman, has argued there was no evidence that his client's wife was cooperating with the government or, if she was, that his client knew about it.

Werksman also accused the government of presenting its case with hearsay and unsubstantiated allegations and said the real focus was the lone federal charge of operating an unlicensed money business.

In court papers, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Aveis wrote that James Fayed was likely to have been ordered to pay about $1 million in spousal support, attorney fees and court sanctions at a hearing set for July 29, the day after his wife was killed.

According to Aveis, Pamela Fayed told a close friend that her husband told her, "I could have you killed and my hands would be clean."

Pamela, the co-owner of the Camarillo-based Goldfinger Coin and Bullion Sales and an associated Internet firm, E-Bullion, was murdered about 6:35 p.m. July 28.

Witnesses said the woman was repeatedly stabbed by a slender man in his 20s who fled in an SUV as she screamed for help.

The business itself has been named as a defendant in the case.

9-1-2009

e-Bullion co-founder jailed on money transfer charge
-Thestandard

James Fayed, the co-founder of e-Bullion, has been jailed after being
charged with conducting unlicensed money transactions that allegedly
netted $20 million worth of individuals' investments, according to
Mark Aveis, an assistant U.S. attorney quoted on SFGate.com. Another article on The Los Angeles Times website this morning says Aveis described Fayed's businesses as Ponzi schemes.

Fayed is currently a suspect in the murder of his wife, Pamela Fayed,
who was also a co-founder of e-Bullion. She was killed in a Los
Angeles parking garage late last month. No one has been arrested in
the murder case yet, but Aveis says James Fayed had a motive: killing
her would prevent her from testifying in the case of the alleged
unlicensed money transfer operation.

In a search of Fayed's house after his arrest last week, authorities
seized $60,000, $3 million in gold bullion, and 25 weapons including
assault rifles, according to Aveis.

At a hearing this week, Aveis claimed that Fayed was a flight risk and
a danger to the community, but the judge ordered him released on
$500,000 bond. The Times says Fayed remains in federal custody.

e-Bullion is one of several well-known "digital gold currency" firms.
Using Internet transactions, DGC companies take customer deposits and match them with the equivalent amount of gold that is supposedly
stored in vaults. Many of the companies are unregulated and/or
incorporated in other countries to avoid U.S. financial laws and
shield the identities of their clients. However, another GDC company,
e-gold, recently vowed to tighten up its policies and submit to U.S.
regulatory oversight after its founders pled guilty in a money
laundering trial.

A message on the e-Bullion website on Tuesday afternoon said the site would be unavailable for four hours while staff performed "routine
maintenance."

8-5
Judge orders Century City slaying victim's husband held without bail

Slaying victim offered to help feds in...

Prosecutors say car seen at site of woman's stabbing was rented with husband's credit card

Woman stabbed in Century City had inquired about 'panic room' for home

8-8 Stabbing victim may have told attorneys of threats against her

Husband Of Slain Wife Enters Plea In Other Case

8-2
Husband of woman stabbed to death in Century City garage is arrested

FBI examining firm of woman fatally...

Woman stabbed in Century City had...

8-2 Husband of woman stabbed to death in Century City garage is arrested

FBI examining firm of woman fatally...

Woman stabbed in Century City had...

8-5 Judge orders Century City slaying victim's husband held without bail

Slaying victim offered to help feds in...

Prosecutors say car seen at site of woman's stabbing was rented with husband's credit card

Woman stabbed in Century City had inquired about 'panic room' for home

8-8 Stabbing victim may have told attorneys of threats against her

Husband Of Slain Wife Enters Plea In Other Case

8-2
Husband of woman stabbed to death in Century City garage is arrested

8-5
Judge orders Century City slaying victim's husband held without bail