DGC Magazine

“Paper is poverty.... it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself.” - Thomas Jefferson 1788

Premiere Digital Gold Issue

January 2008
Interview with
Sean Trainor of Crowne Gold
part 1
December 2007

(Q) Why did you start working full time with

digital gold? Is it just a paycheck to you or
does it mean more?

My telecom company was reviewing options to re-

place the money market fund option I used for our
30-day float fund in the 90’s. An alternative medi-
um of exchange surely seemed able to provide the
emerging Internet marketplace with a solution to
the need for instant final based exchange of value.
Just as email provided a superior solution to snail
mail digital gold could bring a superior option to
credit cards.

I pondered and believed in the need for this solu- I finally negotiated in early 2002 with this company
tion as I followed the exploding fraud being perpe- to bring the idea to the USA where I could get in-
trated online, which was only possible due to the volved in the operations, as I was really beginning
payment/exchange medium allowing the perpe- to love the idea passionately. This forced me to
tration of the fraud, credit cards. Digital gold as a unwind then sell my telecom business leading me
technology based medium would provide the me- to involve myself in the Digital Gold industry almost
dium that this new online marketplace and its us- full time. From early 2002 until late 2003 Crowne
ers did and do require to eliminate the credit card Gold was a miserable attempt at success. I was
fraud. Which by the way, causes all costs to raise finally able to step in as the full time President of
on all goods sold online or not. The merchant’s Crowne Gold, Inc. in late 2003.
credit card fraud loss is obscene. Strangely the
credit card companies don’t seem to lose in fraud- As I believed then I still believe today that Digi-
ulent transactions. tal Gold is the safest, cheapest, easiest, most se-
cure way to exchange wealth that man has known.
The digital gold mediums’ transaction could be and However, this is only true when the issuer has tak-
is now instant and final so each party is secured in en the steps to reach levels of regulated, compli-
their transaction agreement. The transaction takes ant operations. Securing the compliance demand-
place in one server eliminating the process used ed by the global monetary regulators is not easy
by credit card companies that has data flowing all when such a lack of operational standards exists.
over the internet seeking approval codes, identity KYC compliance AML audits and compliance are
proof, valid card accounts, card limits and mer- paramount for security in the terrorist’s times we
chant approval. live in today. Hence Crowne has applied grave ef-
forts to obtain this compliancy.
Credit card payment systems also prohibit the
growth of the Internet as a medium for commerce Those that provide alternative exchange mediums
by prohibiting billions of people around the world using gold understand correctly there are grey ar-
who do not have or cannot qualify for the ability to eas defining operations. This has provided confu-
obtain a credit account. Hence the growth of alter- sion for all issuers, their clients and the regulating
native mediums, like Pay Pal and others. governments. Alleged illegal operations are easily
applied when no compliance for clients and opera- in this arena that will provide client’s gold or silver
tions are adhered to. to them in as small as a one-ounce medallion. Cli-
ents can take down form 1 troy ounce to 400 try
Crowne has found through compliance we are ounce bars.
able to offer even more services then we initially
believed. While a long and grueling road was trav- (Q) Is the Crowne Mint a precious metals dealer
eled to get here, our gold and silver products are and what is their association to Crowne Gold?
offered today via a compliance-based platform.
Crowe Mint is the service provider that issues and
(Q) Who else’s name might I recognize that distributes physical and digital gold to the Crowne
works for Crowne Gold or is associated with Gold marketplace users. It is also the entity that
your operation? holds and distributes, as needed the physical spe-
cies we offer our clients outside of the CG market-
During this run of time I had the opportunity to place.
mingle and meet several other players in the min-
ing industry, the technology industries, account- (Q) You mentioned before, that the company
ing, software, legal on and on. This allowed me has a seat on the commodity exchange in Pan-
to bring in Jim Schilling, Michael Neal and Shirley ama. Can you give us more details?
Palmer to the Crowne family. The efforts provided
by this team have allowed the company to replace As Crowne begins to expand global operations it
the seat of the pants entrepreneur style operation; is our goal to offer our back end engine to users in
with sound fiscally sensitive structure I needed in other countries or cultures the opportunity to ex-
order to ready ourselves for the future growth we change with gold and silver.
envision. Crowne’s involvement in the legal sys-
tem of the USA demanded we engage in hiring
several attorney firms around the country to assist
us in defending our rights to operate. Today we
have formal bonds with legal several legal teams
to help us provide compliance for our users.

(Q) Where does Crowne operate from?

Currently we operate from the United States and

Panama primarily. USA participation is vital as one
has to realize the dollar is still the worlds reserve
currency and services we offer demand US Dollar
accounts be provided to allow the buying and sell-
ing of our products through Fincen system. Look
for Crowne to announce our relocation of corpo-
rate headquarters in 2008.

(Q) Can I buy physical gold bullion from

Crowne?
Our products are offered to anyone around the
world. As we continue to evolve, we will work
towards offering a walk in service in many juris-
dictions around the world. However our goal is
to provide an online medium of exchange that is
secured by metals. Crowne is the only company
In order for us to legitimately offer a audited pro-
cess for our licensees we set out to establish a
board seat on a commodity exchange that would
provide a 3rd party audit of these new operational
options we are creating. BAISA in the Rep de Pan-

L
ama offered us this wonderful opportunity.

In fact this seat will allow Crowne Mint to begin re-

viewing a possible public vehicle for forex traders
to move from fiat currencies into a gold based me-
dium of exchange. This trading option is futuristic
for now but is on our horizons.

(Q)How has that helped your business grow?

O
Our venture to initiate commodity exchange regu-
lation outside of the US has planned future ben-
efits for our company.

(Q) What direct benefits does Crowne Gold of-

fer to online consumers?

O
Crowne Gold offers clients the only “mainstream”
option of an alternative digital gold medium of ex-
change. We have compliance in the USA, we have
settled positively with the US Justice system after
they alleged we were an illegal money transmit-
ter, the IRS dropped their allegation that Crowne
Was a tax evasion system all of this was our effort
to operate legally within the law in the USA. This

M
of course gives us the advantage of moving inter-
nationally with a solid legal foundation. I do not
believe anyone else offering similar services has
been able to accomplish this.

To be continued.

Photographs

.cc
#1 Photo from the Casino Affiliate Convention April,
2005 in Amsterdam. Over 400 casino and sportsbook
executives, marketing / advertising firms, affiliate man-
agers, affiliates and portal webmasters of gaming re-
lated websites were in attendance.

#2 Photo from the fourth annual 2005 ASROC confer-

ence June, 2005 in London. Experts in online payments
presented at ASROC. Alternative payment processors,
internet merchants, banking executives and govern-
ment representatives were in attendance.