Two Men Indicted for Targeting Senior Citizens Across Four States in Money Laundering and Gold Bars Scheme
TOLEDO, Ohio – Two men have been charged for their involvement in a scheme to deceive senior citizens into giving them cash and gold bars amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment Feb. 19 charging Tejas Bhupendrabhai Patel, 31, a resident of Toledo, and Navya Umeshkumar Bhatt, 22, a citizen of India registered to study at the University of Toledo on an F1 visa, with the following:
Money Laundering Conspiracy,
Concealment Money Laundering, and
Promotion Money Laundering.
Over the course of an ongoing wire fraud and money laundering investigation, federal agents discovered a scheme in which victims were falsely made to believe that they were communicating with their bank or federal agents from the FBI, Social Security Administration, and Federal Trade Commission. The victims were manipulated through fear tactics – including in some cases threats that they faced criminal charges. Once misled, victims were directed to withdraw funds from their savings and retirement accounts, convert it to cash and/or gold bars, and provide it to scheme participants posing as bank employees or federal agents. The defendants and their co-conspirators physically traveled hundreds of miles to the victims’ locations to pick up the cash and the gold.
According to the criminal complaint and underlying affidavit, the defendants and/or their co-conspirators drove from Toledo to victims residing in Toledo, Hudson, Sylvania, and Columbus, Ohio; Oscoda and Ann Arbor, Michigan; West Newton, Pennsylvania; and South Bend, Indiana.
The investigation in this case is being conducted by the FBI Toledo Resident Agency.
The prosecution is being led by Assistant United States Attorney Robert N. Melching for the Northern District of Ohio.
If convicted, each defendant faces up to 20 years in federal prison. The sentence will be determined by the court after a review of factors unique to this case, including each defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendants’ role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violations.
An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Defendants are entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
