Erik von Detten sued over alleged $2 million gold investment fraud

Rosland Capital listed $64 million in liabilities and only $500,000 in assets when it ceased operations and declared bankruptcy in July, leaving actor Erik von Detten and the precious-metals company where he worked in a California elder-abuse and fraud case.

The complaint, filed in May, alleges that von Detten, 44, and Rosland Capital persuaded Sheila Greenberg, 85, and her husband, Norman Greenberg, 97, to invest more than $2 million of retirement savings in significantly overpriced gold coins. The couple alleges it lost approximately $900,000.

Von Detten did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The claims against him remain allegations.

The Greenbergs’ account

According to the complaint, Sheila and Norman Greenberg contacted Rosland in 2020 after seeing a television advertisement. The company connected them with von Detten, who had joined Rosland in 2018 after largely stepping away from acting.

The Greenbergs told von Detten that they had limited knowledge of gold and approximately $2 million available in retirement savings, the lawsuit says. They allege that he presented himself as an experienced adviser and encouraged them to purchase Lady Liberty gold coins as an investment.

A sales pitch aimed at retirees

Rosland advertised on Fox News and Newsmax in spots starring actor William Devane, who pitched gold coins as a hedge against inflation and other sources of instability. Rosland’s marketing also urged retirees to convert IRAs into gold-backed funds and offered “a free safe to store your gold.”

The numbers behind the collapse

Rosland reported $151 million in revenues in 2021. In its first-day filing in bankruptcy court, the company reported “excessive cash outflows” and net losses of $24 million from 2022 to 2025.

The same filing says rising gold costs strained Rosland as it struggled to keep up with customer demand, creating a months-long order backlog. Its accountants explained:

“During this interval, the price of gold usually increased dramatically such that Debtor ended up paying more for the gold product than the customer paid Debtor for that product,” they wrote. “This situation was not sustainable and the Debtor lost money rapidly.”

Sales representatives received 15% to 35% of the profit on each order, even if the order was later refunded, the first-day motion says. When Rosland stopped operations, about 470 messages and voicemails demanded refunds or delivery of gold products.

The committee’s broader allegations

The creditors’ committee is seeking to subpoena von Detten as it investigates Rosland’s failure. It says he appears to have “played an instrumental part in the Debtor’s business and its financial collapse.”

“The Greenbergs’ story is not unique,” the committee alleges. “It is one of hundreds. Creditors, including the other Committee members, have described remarkably similar experiences: trust cultivated, expertise professed, reliance encouraged, and substantial savings ultimately lost with zero information about where their money has gone.”

The bankruptcy filings record scrutiny from the New York Attorney General’s Office and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The source material quotes no enforcement finding by those agencies.

The committee’s attorneys disputed the idea that Rosland simply failed because of market conditions. They wrote:

“The Committee believes the facts point to something far more troubling: a business that preyed on a vulnerable population, stole customer money while its ability to perform was collapsing,
lied to its own customers about what their money would be used for, and ultimately left creditors to ask whether those funds were misused, diverted, transferred to insiders or affiliates, or simply consumed to keep the scheme alive.”

From Disney to financial services

The case also follows von Detten’s move from acting into financial sales. He was a familiar face in Disney productions in the late 1990s and early 2000s. His credits include:

• The title character in the 1998 Disney original movie “Brink!”
• Josh Bryant, the love interest of Anne Hathaway’s Mia Thermopolis, in 2001’s “The Princess Diaries”
• Sid Phillips, the toy-destroying neighbor in “Toy Story,” and Erwin Lawson in Disney’s animated series “Recess”
• “Escape to Witch Mountain,” “So Weird” and “Complete Savages”

Von Detten largely retired from acting around 2010, moved into sales and financial services, and briefly reprised Sid in “Toy Story 4.”

What does the lawsuit change for von Detten and retirees?

For von Detten, the immediate change is legal, not final: the committee wants to subpoena him, putting his role for Rosland inside a bankruptcy inquiry. That inquiry has not established that he misled the Greenbergs.

For customers, the practical issue is whether their money was misused, diverted, transferred to insiders or affiliates, or consumed to keep Rosland alive. The committee says the Greenbergs’ experience is one of hundreds.

The creditors’ committee’s effort to subpoena von Detten will test that theory; until then, fraud remains an allegation against him, while Rosland’s filings document $24 million in net losses from 2022 to 2025.