Frank Parlato
James D. Clark delivered gold. He stole some too. He took their money. He told them the gold was coming. It did not come for 118 people.
He stole $6,333,973.74.
A thief. That made him a good candidate for the FBI. A crook turned informant. Sent out to make a case. Any case. Lead any man to crime.
In return for these good services, James D. Clark hoped for less time. Maybe none at all.
He was riding high once, this James D. Clark. You saw him on YouTube or heard him on the radio – conservative radio. He had a plan for you folks thinking of retiring.
Don’t trust the banks. Don’t trust stocks or anything the globalists want you to invest in. Keep it away from what the government can take from you. Plan your retirement around gold. Real gold. Bars of it, stored safely in a vault. You get the certificate.
You sit back and watch it grow.
Boy, did it work. Over three years, Clark, through his Midas Gold Group Co., sold $294 million in gold. Thousands of people trusted him and sent him their money, and he sent the bars to Brinks or to Delaware for storage.
And as we just said above, just 118 people – well, he never bothered to send them anything. $6.33 million – he just took the money and never delivered a thing.
The 98 percent was supposedly deposited. Delaware. Brinks. The records show it. They got statements. They were told the gold was there.
But there was something curious. There was a plant in Mexico. Jalisco. Procesos Minerales y Metalúrgicos del Bajío. Clark put $200,000 into it. He did not tell the bankruptcy trustee at first. It came out later, when he amended his filings under pressure.
No explanation followed. The trustee marked it and moved on. The FBI did not ask.
So ask the question.
Why did Clark buy a plant in Jalisco?
Midas Gold was not a mine. It did not dig. It did not refine. It sold finished gold. Bars and coins. Bought from others. Sent to depositories.
A dealer does not need a refinery. He needs a supplier. A man does not buy a place that processes metal unless he means to process metal.
Tungsten-filled gold bars are a documented method of precious metals fraud. They match gold’s weight closely enough to pass a scale. A bar can be filled and sealed. It can look right. It can feel right.
The profit is simple. A ten-ounce gold bar sells for about $47,000. Gold costs about $4,700 an ounce. Tungsten costs about $3.
Fill the bar with one. Coat it with the other. It looks the same. Instead of $47,000, it costs only $200. The difference is $46,800 per bar. The difference goes in someone’s pocket.
Jalisco is a hard place. The cartel runs it. Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación.
They move money. They move metal. They run operations that don’t ask questions. A plant in Jalisco can make a bar that looks like gold.
Who would know?
The depositories check the weight, size, and the stamp.
A good counterfeit bar will pass. A counterfeit bar made right will look right. It will feel right. It goes in. It is logged. It is stored. The client gets a statement. The certificate says it is there.
No one cuts it open. No one drills it. It sits in the vault.
Like gold.
Gold on the outside. Tungsten on the inside.
Hiding an asset in bankruptcy is a crime. A man does it for one reason. He does not want it seen. He does not want questions. Not from the trustee. Not from an accountant. Clark hid the plant in Jalisco. A place that processes metal.
If the bars were not all gold, then the $6.33 million is only part of it.
There could be more. Bars in vaults. Logged and sealed. Believed to be gold. If they are not, then the loss exceeds $6.33 million.
There is a way to test it. X-ray fluorescence. XRF. It reads the metal without cutting it. No drilling. No damage. It takes minutes.
A client can ask for it. The custodian can authorize it. The bar can be checked. If it is gold, the test will say so. If it is not, the test will say that too.
The law is clear. Counterfeiting gold brings ten years for each count. Fraud brings more. Money moved through a plant brings more. Conspiracy brings more still.
While Clark was being used to make an FBI entrapment case, something else may have been happening.
A small plant can do a lot. Basic machines. A few men. No oversight. It can turn out bars all day.
Clark said he moved $294 million in gold. If even a part of that was not gold, then the $6 million is small beside it.
And yet the trade was made.
Clark for Leo Grillo.
Did anyone at the FBI stop and look at Clark? Not the case he offered, but the man. A dealer who owned a metal plant in Jalisco. A place he did not need. A place he hid. A place he would not explain.
Clark named his company after a king. Midas turned everything to gold. It became a curse. He begged the gods to be free of it. They told him to wash in a river. He did. The gold left him. It went into the water.
Clark had his own river. He walked into the Federal Bureau of Investigation office in Phoenix. He offered them Leo Grillo.
The curse moved. Grillo went to jail. Clark did not.
Whether what is sitting in the vaults in Delaware and Utah is gold or something that merely looks like it remains an open question. The FBI was too busy with Leo Grillo to ask.
The FBI had to overlook Clark. They were focused on Leo Grillo.
Next: How Clark set up Leo Grillo.
More on the topic
Frank Report:
- FBI Setup? DELTA Rescue’s Founder Arrested — your first story breaking Clark’s identity, March 5, 2026
- LA Times Got the Grillo Kidnap Story Wrong — March 6, 2026
- Feds Indict Grillo: DELTA Rescue Founder Faces Kidnapping Charge Based on Fraudster’s Entrapment — March 16, 2026
Artvoice:
- FBI Setup? DELTA Rescue’s Founder Arrested — March 5, 2026
- Feds Indict Grillo: DELTA Rescue Founder Faces Kidnapping Charge Based on Fraudster’s Entrapment — March 17, 2026
- FBI Informant PT 2: The Clark Family Buz — April 4, 2026
Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.
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Thanks for exposing this scam. It is shameful he defrauded hard working Americans, retirees and seniors. All American patriots who believed his fear mongering lies that the dollar and stocks would be worthless and the government would confiscate their assets at some point.
The FBI exposed Clark’s scam.
And the FBI caught Grillo red-handed.
FBI is batting 1000!
How many of your PR clients have gotten Trump pardons?
Do you charge per article or by the word?
“Grillo brought two small .38-caliber pistols to the meeting, one in each pocket. According to people familiar with his account, he did so because Clark — approximately six foot three, ex-military, and increasingly erratic — had begun to worry him.
Clark arrived at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank at approximately 11:05 a.m. He got into Grillo’s camper van. He said he needed to talk about “the stuff in Mexico.””
Why would you want to move forward on a documentary film project with someone you find so erratic that you feel the need to carry two hand guns to meet with him?
Why would you meet with that person in your camper van rather than somewhere public like a Starbucks?
Is Grillo really that stupid?
Grillo is stupid, but he isn’t that stupid. Regardless, he’s guilty. He’ll probably come to his senses and negotiate a plea bargain.
“According to sources familiar with his account, Clark proposed a plan. As Grillo understood the arrangement, those lawyers would invite Duarte, who had been in the United States illegally for more than twenty years, to Mexico on a paid trip where she could address her immigration exposure and where a lawyer could explain to her that her American attorney had held out on a million-dollar settlement offer she could have accepted years earlier.”
Why did this require anyone traveling to Mexico?
Why not set up a Zoom call?
Is Grillo really that dumb?
Trump is a winner. Grillo is a loser.
Trump does not pardon losers.
The prosecutors working on this case must appreciate this website laying out the defense case for them. Makes their job much easier than it already is.
Grillo may be looking at fraud prosecution as well.
https://blog.charitywatch.org/charitywatch-investigates-millions-in-missing-donations-and-a-6-7-million-legal-judgment-against-large-animal-sanctuary/
How is any of this going to make it into evidence?
Grillo should follow Frank’s example and take a plea bargain.
Clark’s a scoundrel – another conman He’s more valuable as an fbi informant than Grillo ever could be. He’ll take down Grillo and the fbi will keep him on the hook to frame others.
Still don’t understand why Leo Grillo would hire a guy like this to work on a supposed documentary film project.
Clark sounds like the kind of guy Leo would hire for a kidnapping plot.
Clark is some sweet kid. But what did Leo Grillo do ? Must have been pretty bad.