Updated: August 6, 2026
OPRS may receive compensation when readers open an account through partner links on this page. Our analysis is based on independent research, BBB data, and IRS publications.
Our verdict on Monex Precious Metals in 2026
Company: Monex Deposit Company (with affiliates Monex Credit Company and Newport Services Corporation).
Status in 2026: Active retail metals dealer at 4910 Birch Street, Newport Beach, CA 92660. Phone 800-444-8317.
Regulatory record: A federal court entered a consent order on December 19, 2022. It required Monex and its owners to pay $38 million ($33 million restitution + $5 million civil monetary penalty). It also imposed a 10-year ban on CFTC registration.
OPRS position: Monex is not on the OPRS trusted list. The public federal record, not any editorial opinion, is the reason. 3 of 27+ gold IRA dealers reviewed by OPRS make the 2026 trusted list, and companies with an active federal fraud consent order do not qualify for that shortlist.
Who this page is for: Anyone deciding whether to open a leveraged Atlas account, transfer bullion, or use a Monex-referred custodian for a self-directed IRA in 2026.
Who Monex is today
Monex Deposit Company sells physical gold, silver, platinum, and palladium to US retail customers. The company traces its history to the coin shop opened by Louis Carabini in 1967, and Monex Deposit Company operates today alongside affiliated entities that succeeded that original business.
The company markets three product lanes on its 2026 website: outright bullion purchase with client-side storage, third-party IRA-eligible metals sourcing paired with an external custodian, and its historically prominent Atlas leveraged trading platform.
Ownership remains inside the Carabini family. Michael Carabini appears as principal alongside founder Louis Carabini in the filings that resolved the CFTC case in 2022.
The CFTC fraud case: what actually happened
On September 6, 2017, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a civil enforcement action in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The defendants were Monex Deposit Company, Monex Credit Company, Newport Services Corporation, and their principals Louis and Michael Carabini.
The CFTC captioned the filing as one of the largest precious metals fraud cases in the agency’s history. Coverage in the CFTC press release described the Atlas program as an off-exchange leveraged trading platform pitched to retail customers as a safe way to hold precious metals.
The complaint alleged that over 12,000 retail trading accounts placed leveraged trades between July 16, 2011 and March 31, 2017. The CFTC calculated total customer losses at more than $290 million during that window.
The case was transferred to the US District Court for the Central District of California, docketed as 8:17-cv-01868, before Judge James V. Selna. The CFTC pursued three theories: fraud in solicitation, illegal off-exchange leveraged retail commodity transactions, and failure to register as a Futures Commission Merchant.
The litigation ran five years. It included two trips to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and a summary judgment ruling in the CFTC’s favor on the illegal-transactions and registration counts.
The 2022 consent order and what it requires
On December 19, 2022, Judge Selna entered a consent order for permanent injunction, civil monetary penalty, and other equitable relief against all defendants. The CFTC announced the resolution three days later in Press Release 8643-22.
The order imposes four concrete obligations on Monex, its affiliates, and Louis and Michael Carabini personally.
- $33 million in restitution paid to defrauded customers.
- $5 million civil monetary penalty paid to the US Treasury.
- 10-year ban on registering with the CFTC in any capacity.
- Permanent injunction against future off-exchange leveraged retail commodity transactions and fraud, and against trading futures or options on a regulated market except for genuine hedging.
The Nov. 4, 2022 dismissal order that preceded the December consent order was styled “Order of Dismissal Upon Settlement of Case.” It dismissed the action without prejudice, contingent on the parties finalizing the consent judgment within 75 days. They did, and Docket #416 records the final terms.
Two facts about the consent order are worth understanding before drawing a conclusion. First, defendants neither admitted nor denied the fraud findings, per the standard CFTC settlement template. Second, the CFTC’s public statements describe the case as one it “fiercely and successfully litigated at the district court level, up to the court of appeals, and back to the district court.”
What the 2017 complaint said about how Monex sold Atlas
The CFTC press releases and court filings describe a documented pattern of high-pressure retail solicitation. These are allegations from the public record, adopted by reference in the 2022 consent order, not editorial characterizations by OPRS.
- Sales representatives were trained to pitch leveraged precious metals trading with projected “30 to 40% net gains,” “annualized rate of return of 20% or more,” and “unlimited upside potential.”
- Solicitations positioned precious metals as a hedge against economic uncertainty while promoting speculative leveraged trades that operate very differently from physical bullion ownership.
- The majority of customers who placed Atlas leveraged trades lost money, per the court’s findings. Monex did not disclose that loss rate to prospective customers.
- Sales staff earned increased commissions and bonuses tied to pushing customers into leveraged trades rather than outright bullion purchases.
- Monex acted as the counterparty to every Atlas trade, meaning customer losses corresponded directly to Monex profits when leveraged positions closed at a loss.
The Atlas leveraged trading program is the specific product the federal case addressed. If you are considering only an outright bullion purchase or an IRA metals order through Monex, the leveraged-trading findings still matter as a track record signal, even though they do not describe those particular transactions.
Monex and gold IRAs: what to know
Monex is not an IRA custodian. Federal law requires that self-directed IRAs holding physical metals be custodied by an IRS-approved trust company or bank (see IRC §408(a) and the IRS list of approved non-bank trustees).
Monex sources IRA-eligible bullion for clients and pairs the order with a third-party custodian. That structure is standard across the dealer landscape. What differs from dealer to dealer is fee transparency, choice of custodian, and the sales process a client encounters at intake.
Any IRA metals order carries three fee layers to review before you sign: the metals markup over spot, custodian setup and annual account fees, and depository storage fees. Ask for these fees in writing before funding.
Independent ratings and where to check them yourself
Ratings sites move over time and legitimate reviews get filtered or replaced. Rather than freeze a snapshot in this page, we point you to the primary sources so you can read the current record yourself in 2026.
- Better Business Bureau: search bbb.org for “Monex Deposit Company” in Newport Beach, CA. Read the complaint volume and the government-action alert box, not just the letter grade.
- CFTC RED List and enforcement docket: the CFTC publishes ongoing enforcement actions on its press-release archive. The two Monex releases (2017 and 2022) are linked in Sources cited.
- CourtListener: the full 418-entry docket for CFTC v. Monex Credit Company is publicly searchable, including the consent order.
- California Secretary of State BusinessSearch: confirms current corporate standing for Monex Deposit Company and affiliates.
Our companion guide, How to Read a BBB Business Profile for a Gold IRA Dealer, walks through what to look for beyond the letter grade.
How Monex compares against dealers that clear our checklist
The OPRS trusted-dealer shortlist for 2026 applies four hard filters. No active federal consent order. Transparent published fee schedule. BBB accreditation with A or higher rating. No requirement to enter a leveraged trading platform to open a metals IRA position. Monex fails the first filter based on the 2022 consent order.
For a side-by-side view of the dealers that do meet the checklist, our maintained list is at gold IRA dealers to avoid (the inverse framing surfaces the trusted names as the counterexamples). If you want the framework rather than the shortlist, see how to choose a gold IRA custodian.
If you have already opened an Atlas account or funded a Monex IRA order
Existing customers have practical options regardless of the CFTC settlement. Nothing below constitutes legal or investment advice; consult a licensed professional for your specific situation.
- Request a full account statement covering all transactions, all markups, and any leverage-related fees or interest.
- If you traded Atlas between 2011 and 2017 and believe you were a class member of the CFTC restitution population, contact the CFTC’s Office of Customer Education and Outreach.
- For IRA-held metals, remember you can transfer to a different custodian without triggering a taxable event, provided you follow trustee-to-trustee transfer procedure per IRS Publication 590-A.
- If you believe you were the target of high-pressure sales tactics that fit the patterns described in the CFTC complaint, see our recovery playbook at what to do if you were scammed on a gold IRA.
You can also review the sales-script patterns that map to the CFTC’s allegations in our guide to bait-and-switch tactics in bullion sales.
Frequently asked questions about Monex Precious Metals
Is Monex still in business in 2026?
Yes. Monex Deposit Company operates from 4910 Birch Street, Newport Beach, CA 92660, and sells retail precious metals in 2026. The 2022 consent order did not shut the company down, though it banned the entities and their owners from CFTC registration for 10 years and imposed a permanent injunction on off-exchange leveraged retail commodity transactions.
What was the Atlas program?
Atlas was Monex’s off-exchange leveraged retail trading platform for gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. Customers borrowed against a partial deposit to control larger positions. Monex acted as counterparty to each trade. The CFTC’s 2017 complaint identified Atlas as the vehicle for the fraudulent sales practices, and the 2022 consent order permanently enjoined the defendants from resuming similar programs.
Did Monex admit to fraud?
No. Under the standard CFTC settlement structure the defendants neither admitted nor denied the specific factual findings. However, they agreed to entry of the consent order, its $38 million payment obligations, and the permanent injunction, which have the same legal effect as an adjudicated judgment.
Can I open a gold IRA through Monex?
Monex sells IRA-eligible metals and pairs the transaction with a third-party custodian. Whether that arrangement is appropriate for you is a separate question. OPRS does not include Monex on its trusted-dealer shortlist because of the 2022 consent order.
What is the BBB rating for Monex in 2026?
BBB ratings and complaint counts move continuously. Read the current profile directly on bbb.org for “Monex Deposit Company” in Newport Beach, CA. Focus on the government-action alert box and complaint volume, not only the letter grade.
Was the CFTC case ever appealed to the Supreme Court?
The case included two trips to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The Supreme Court did not take up the case, and it returned to the district court, which ruled in the CFTC’s favor on summary judgment before the parties reached the December 2022 consent order.
Where can I read the actual consent order?
The Dec. 19, 2022 consent order is Docket Entry 416 in CFTC v. Monex Credit Company, 8:17-cv-01868, in the US District Court for the Central District of California. The docket is public on CourtListener. The CFTC’s own summary is Press Release 8643-22.
Sources cited
- US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Press Release 7609-17, CFTC Charges Monex Deposit Company, its Affiliates, and their Principals in Multi-Million Dollar Fraudulent Precious Metals Scheme, Sept. 6, 2017.
- US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Press Release 8643-22, Federal Court Orders California Precious Metals Firm and Its Owners to Pay $38 Million for Commodity Fraud and Registration Violations, Dec. 21, 2022.
- CFTC v. Monex Credit Company, 8:17-cv-01868 (C.D. Cal.), full public docket, US District Court for the Central District of California (case terminated Nov. 4, 2022; consent order Docket 416 filed Dec. 19, 2022).
- Commodity Exchange Act §4(a), 7 U.S.C. §6 (Regulation of futures trading and foreign transactions), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School.
- Commodity Exchange Act §6(c)(1), 7 U.S.C. §9 (Prohibition regarding manipulation and false information), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School.
- Internal Revenue Service, Publication 590-A: Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) (rollover and transfer procedures).
- Internal Revenue Service, Approved Nonbank Trustees and Custodians (IRA custody eligibility list).
- Monex Deposit Company corporate website, archived snapshot at the Internet Archive, April 2026 (company profile, address, phone, product lines).
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