Reality TV show plans to mine gold in Nome

You can go online and bring down all kinds of information on Rivers of Gold, a limited partnership which intends to mine for gold in Nome, Alaska and put on a reality TV show about gold mining in that frigid atmosphere. (Environmentalists are protesting the project.) The general partner, Intelligent Practices, has other plans, such as selling merchandise related to the show.

According to the information online, the producer of the TV show will be Kupcinet Productions, which has had such successes as Judge Judy, That’s Incredible!, The Dating Game, and Entertainment Tonight.

This is a special offering with lots of risks — including gold mining and and producing reality TV shows, the investment material confesses. The minimum investment is $50,000.

The person with the titles of Partner in Communications and TV Show Talent Director is San Diegan David Sao Marcos. Says the promotional material, “David has worked closely with the principals developing the Rivers of Gold Reality TV Show personnel…he will be on our Alaska operations site for extended periods during the gold mining,” and will obtain celebrity talent and help out with the marketing of merchandise.

But for somebody in the communications business, he is no bubbly personality. I called for more information about the mining and reality TV show. Sao Marcos: “We are not discussing our business with anybody other than investors.” Then he hung up.

Sao Marcos attended Southwestern College 1986-1988.

Before going into the gold mining/reality TV business, he was with several brokerage houses. According to records of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, he had two black marks. In one case he was charged with fraudulent misrepresentation, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and violation of New York Stock Exchange Rules. The complainant asked for $3 million and got $750,000.”It was settled without my allowing to clear myself,” he said at the time. In another case, the complainant asked for $7,580 and got $4,999. The brokerages he worked for had problems. FINRA shut down GunnAllen Financial for lack of capital. Brookstreet Securities closed its doors after suffering heavy losses. Later, a judge ordered the brokerage’s chief executive to pay $10 million in a securities fraud case. After Brookstreet had closed down, FINRA charged six of its former brokers for selling complex mortgage-backed securities to naive investors who were unaware of the risks.