2 Slain, Owner Wounded in Newport Beach Coin Shop

A Newport Beach dealer in coins and precious metals who was under investigation for allegedly bilking dozens of investors out of $1 million was critically wounded and two people in his shop were killed Tuesday, law enforcement authorities said.

All three were shot in the back or top of the head in “execution style,” one federal source said.

William D. King, 36, owner of Newport Coin Exchange on MacArthur Boulevard, was in surgery at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center late Tuesday night, a hospital spokeswoman said.

King and two others--a male customer and a woman who worked at the business--were shot in the coin shop shortly before 6 p.m. Newport Beach police spokesman Robert Oakley said a robbery alarm at the shop alerted police that something was wrong, and a phone call from a witness in the parking lot came in a minute later. When police arrived, they found King seriously wounded and the other two dead.

King pleaded with paramedics to let him die at the scene, the source said.

Newport Beach police said the identities of the two people were being withheld pending notification of relatives. The body of the woman was found behind a counter, the source said.

Wife Worked With Him

King’s wife, Renee, 39, worked with him at the precious-metals business--Precious Metals Accumulation Corp., or Premaco, which sold contracts for gold, platinum and silver--and was believed to have worked with him as well at Newport Coin Exchange, the source said.

A shotgun was recovered at the scene, but authorities do not know if it was used. The area was littered with 9-millimeter ammunition.

Newport Beach police declined to say whether the slayings appeared to be motivated by anything other than robbery. “It appears at this point to be a robbery,” Oakley said, adding that police have not determined what, if anything, was missing. “There is merchandise all over the place inside,” Oakley said.

Customers can only gain entrance to the coin shop if an employee buzzes them through the doors. Oakley said it appeared that the assailant, or assailants, got into the shop without any problem.

Possible witnesses to the shooting were being interviewed in a building behind the coin shop Tuesday night. “It’s not clear at this point what they actually saw,” Oakley said. “There was a lot of confusion, and we’re getting some conflicting descriptions. We’re not sure whether they saw victims or suspects.”

King did not lack enemies. Last May, a Las Vegas man who claimed to have lost $150,000 to Premaco showed up at the business--in the company of four bodyguards and an attorney--to collect his investment. Police were called to defuse the situation. A week later, King and his crew of eight telemarketers were arrested for operating the company without a license.

King later registered the company, but in August he was sued by the state attorney general’s office for allegedly bilking investors out of about $1 million. In October, a judge froze the firm’s assets to prevent King from misappropriating funds. Authorities believe that, in all, 54 investors were swindled out of sums ranging from $2,000 to more than $100,000.

According to court documents, King admitted to a U.S. postal inspector last year that he had been “borrowing from Peter to pay Paul” and that he owed one investor $150,000.

The complaint filed against King alleged that he failed to deliver metals bought by investors, failed to buy or sell metals when told to do so by clients and issued bad checks to settle customers’ accounts.

King founded the company in 1983. It came under investigation in 1986 when Newport Beach police received the first of two dozen complaints from investors.

The investors claimed that they had not been able to liquidate their precious-metals contracts with Premaco. When they tried to cash out, they either got no response from the company or received bad checks.

A federal source familiar with the case said King and his lawyer were negotiating recently with federal authorities concerning indictments on charges of mail and wire fraud. The Kings’ half-million dollar home on Wildhorse Circle in Orange was recently repossessed, a federal source said.

Times staff writer Michael Cicchese contributed to this story.