TV Star’s Deal With Gold Firm That Bilked Seniors Out of Millions

Throughout his long career, William Devane has regularly portrayed powerful figures on screen, from politicians and military commanders to influential business executives.

That authoritative presence and familiar, measured delivery made the Knots Landing star a natural choice for Rosland Capital, a precious-metals investment company that enlisted him as its public face.

For almost 15 years, Devane appeared in a series of advertisements promoting Rosland Capital as a dependable place for investors to protect their money through gold bullion, silver coins and other precious-metal products.

In one commercial, Devane declared, “Trust is earned,” before pointing to Rosland’s reported “A+ rating” from the Better Business Bureau. He concluded: “I trust Rosland Capital.”

Then, about three months ago, the advertisements abruptly disappeared from Fox News and Newsmax.

Around the same time, Rosland Capital vacated its offices in Los Angeles and Henderson, Nevada, dismissed dozens of workers and rapidly closed down its operations.

On July 2, the company—which had claimed to sell more than $1 billion in precious metals, primarily to retirees—filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in California.

Since the bankruptcy filing, dozens of customers have submitted claims against Rosland Capital. Some are elderly investors who say they lost millions of dollars from their retirement savings.

Devane has not publicly commented, but his wife, Debbie Morrison, told the Daily Mail that neither of them knew how the company conducted its business.

“It goes completely against his morals,” Morrison said. “He absolutely did not know what was going on in the company.”

She added that the situation had been devastating for those affected and deeply shocking to the couple as well. “It’s just terrible what has happened and we feel bad for everyone,” she said.

“It’s awful what [Rosland] has done. He feels terrible for what has happened to everyone, but he had no idea and no way of knowing what was happening,” Morrison said.

Bankruptcy court documents also indicate that Rosland Capital owed money to Devane himself.

The filings state that his agreement with the company provided quarterly payments of $50,000 and was scheduled to remain in effect until June 2028.

According to Morrison, Devane’s involvement was limited to appearing at filming locations for the commercials, with no broader role in the company’s operations.

She also said that the couple had never visited Rosland Capital’s offices in either California or Nevada.

The Daily Mail has contacted attorneys representing Rosland Capital and its chief executive, Marin Aleksov, for comment.

Court documents detail how the billion-dollar company quickly tanked and is now under liquidation.

The company reported assets in the $1 to $10 million range against liabilities of $50 to $100 million.

According to court filings, the company also has a capital deficit at more than $60 million and allegedly claims to no longer have any inventory of gold bullion or coins, just limited cash.

Rosland grew its customer base for 20 years from aggressive celebrity advertisement on cable news networks, Google, Bing, YouTube and other platforms.

According to the filings, the rise in precious metal prices earlier this year caused a surge in orders, and the company could not keep up with the prepaid orders.

The company would also pay its brokers and sales representatives 15 to 35 percent commission, further squeezing the company’s profits, according to records.

Fox News was listed on the company’s bankruptcy petition as a creditor, with Rosland owing the network $1.9 million.

The names of the other 19 unsecured creditors who were owed about $21.6 million, were redacted.

Laurel Mooney Proaps, who lives in San Marcos, California, said she is still waiting for her coins, which she paid $101,000 for, to Rosland Capital.

She has since joined the company’s bankruptcy case as a claimant, along with dozens of others.

Proaps said she saw the commercials featuring Devane while watching Fox News earlier this year. She was instantly drawn to the idea of securing her finances by buying silver.

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‘The salesperson convinced me that silver was going to “blow up” and that it was going up so much in value,’ Proaps, 65, told the Daily Mail.

‘Two salespeople were then very convincing and came off like they were so informative about the precious metals market. One of them even told me that he had just gotten back from having lunch with the president of Charles Schwab the other day.’

Proaps said when she started to trust the two salespeople, she made two purchases of about $50,000 with the expectation she would be receiving her silver Canadian falcon coins by special delivery in the mail within 14 days.

‘I got to know them so well that we would have conversations about restaurants we went to,’ Proaps said. ‘But when the 14 days passed and there were still no coins, it was, “We can’t get the silver right now because it’s so hard to get right now and it’s a completely a supply-chain thing.”

‘And then it was, “The person in our shipping department is sick.” Finally, my husband flat out asked in March, “Is your company in financial trouble or something?”’

‘Their response was, “Oh, don’t worry. You will get the coins.”’

Proaps said when she called again about six weeks later, the regular salespeople she often communicated with were gone and another unknown salesperson was on their voicemail.

According to the declaration filed by the company’s attorneys, Rosland employees in the Los Angeles and Henderson offices were let go on June 19.

Meanwhile, more than 400 voicemails and emails from frustrated customers remained unanswered.

One of those salespeople was Princess Diaries actor Erik von Detten. 

The former actor said in prior interviews that he left the entertainment business in 2010 and joined Rosland Capital in 2018 as a senior representative and broker.

Another elderly couple, 85-year-old Sheila Greenberg and 97-year-old Norman Greenberg, who claimed to have been bilked out of $2 million of their retirement savings, filed a civil suit in May against von Detten, Rosland Capital and Aleksov.

The Greenbergs claim that they had called the company in 2020 after seeing a television advertisement and were put in touch with von Detten.

They also alleged that von Detten had impressed them with his knowledge about gold and said that he would be able to help them.

They allege that they placed two orders of Lady Liberty gold from von Detten for around $1 million, but were never sent coins and instead sent to a facility for storage then a short time later von Detten made another purchase of $1 million in coins.

The couple went on to claim that they eventually learned the coins they had purchased were not worth what they spent and had been marked at a massive premium.

The Greenbergs have alleged that they have invested $2.1 million total, but the coins were only worth $1.3 million.

They are now suing for $900,000 in damages to recover their losses in addition to punitive damages.

The Daily Mail has reached out to von Detten and Aleksov for comment. 

Brian Davidoff, an attorney representing Roseland Capital LLC, declined to comment on the lawsuit, but told the Daily Mail that a plan of liquidation is expected to be filed in the next two weeks. 

 ‘We have worked with the Creditors Committee to create a liquidating trust which will have the power to investigate the financial history of the company to provide answers to the claims of the Greenberg’s and other investors,’ Davidoff said. 

 So far, they have not filed a response to the Greenbergs’ or Proaps’ lawsuits. 

Aleksov and von Detten have close ties.

Records obtained by the Daily Mail show von Detten’s wife, who is a real estate agent, sold Aleksov’s $4.9 million, five-bedroom mansion in the upscale Brentwood neighborhood about a month before Rosland Capital declared bankruptcy.

The Greenbergs’ attorney, Bruce Berman, told the Daily Mail his clients’ civil suit is on hold temporarily while Rosland continues its bankruptcy proceedings. 

Proaps also filed her own civil suit against the company and CEO Aleksov earlier this month, claiming intentional fraud. Since she has lost over $100,000, Proaps said she has had to represent herself.

‘It’s been very stressful because I already lost so much money, and now I can’t even afford $20,000 or more to hire another attorney, so I’m having to do this on my own.’

The stay-at-home mom, whose children are now grown up, said she was hoping she and her husband would be able to retire and have a comfortable ‘nest egg’.

‘But now that’s gone,’ she said. ‘I’ve joined that bankruptcy as a creditor but there is probably no money left once they liquidate everything.

‘I’m so stressed out because I’m also suing them on my own, but I know I’m not alone in this because there are hundreds of us. There are people who said they wanted to cash out their gold but it was just taken, and they never got any of their money back. We didn’t even know they shut everything down. It’s devastating.’