Since 1984, Northwest Territorial Mint has been designing, creating and manufacturing die-struck coins, medallions, knives and other custom-minted products. It is one of America’s largest private mints and specializes in bullion.
Back in 2018, the former President & CEO and Vault Manager of NWTM were indicted for 20 federal felonies. Those charges included a Ponzi-like scheme that defrauded customers of millions of dollars.
What Happened to Northwest Territorial Mint?
The company has been designing, manufacturing, and distributing coins, medallions, knives, and other custom minted products for over 30 years. It is regarded as one of America’s largest private mints and offers a wide variety of products to customers worldwide.
The indictment charges that Hansen and Erdmann lied about shipping times for bullion, used customer money to expand the business into other states and to pay their own personal expenses. The duo also defrauded bullion customers who paid NWTM to store their metal in secure vaults, stealing $4.9 million in silver and gold from them.
The company filed for bankruptcy protection in March of this year. Its losses to creditors could reach $50 million, and the resulting debacle has tarnished the reputation of the precious metals industry.
What Happened to Ranger Industries?
For half a century Ranger was a genuine wild West town. It had a population of 30,000 people in tents, shacks, and oil storage tanks and it thrived on sled ferries to transport them from one side of town to the other.
During the boom, a hundred and forty-four derricks drilled on Ranger property. Wells produced 60,000 to 70,000 barrels a day, but TP, the largest lease-holder, pulled out of the field in 1970.
In the years that followed, dozens of other companies tried to find a way to make the sands flow again. Some pumped acid into the wells; others exploded and injected water to force more oil up through the rock.
Many of these companies failed; a few succeeded. But they were a minority. And none of them ever really made Ranger work again.
What Happened to Rob Hansen?
Hansen was a skinny little fucker who stuttered and had shocking acne, which meant that he was rejected by the ‘nice’ girls at school. As he grew up, he moved to Alaska, where he was able to pursue his passion for hunting.
But the reality was that hunting was not enough for him – instead, Hansen began killing prostitutes and abducting them. He paid them for sex, then took them to his cabin in the woods and killed them like animals.
Using his Piper Super Cub N3089Z, he would pick up women on Fourth Avenue, handcuff them or tie them up at gunpoint, and fly them out to his favorite sandbar in the Knik River Valley. Then he buried their bodies in the wilderness.
In 1984, Hansen confessed to seventeen murders and provided investigators with a thorough list of his dump sites. He also pointed out 15 gravesites in the Knik River Valley that police were unaware of. He was sentenced to 461 years in prison with no chance of parole.
