Five people have been jailed for stealing at least $8 million from elderly victims in ten states, in a crime that sounds like it came from a movie. The thieves didn’t only grab cash; they also duped their victims into giving over gold bars, a component of the fraud that has law enforcement and victims alike scratching their heads.
On Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri revealed the charges, showing the scope and deception of the scam. The charges against Dariona Lambert, 22, Zhamoniq Stevens, 23, Chintankumar Parekh, 51, Mehul Darji, 41, and Sital Singh, 42, include conspiring to conduct wire fraud. On October 4, the indictment revealed a deceptive network that specifically targeted the elderly.
How the Scam Unfolded
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According to the indictment, the fraud went like this: the defendants would call elderly people and convince them that their savings and retirement accounts had been stolen. They posed as technical help or financial advisors and convinced their victims to transfer monies to “secure” accounts controlled by the perpetrators.
In certain instances, they took their dishonesty to even greater extremes. They persuaded victims to exchange large sums of money for gold bars, believing this would safeguard their possessions from the purported hackers. Once the defendants obtained the gold bars, they dispatched couriers to the victims’ residences to retrieve the valuable metal.
A Missouri Woman’s Close Call
The scammers tricked an 82-year-old woman from Missouri into purchasing $250,000 worth of gold bars. The scammers had informed her that her accounts were under threat and that in order to secure her finances, she needed to wire money offshore and move funds to freshly made bank accounts. The thieves went so far as to convince her that buying gold was the only way to protect her money.
The criminals did not anticipate the presence of police enforcement. Dariona Lambert flew from Florida to St. Louis on May 1, 2024, to join Parekh in a conspiracy to seize the Missouri victim’s gold bars. Lambert took an Uber to the victim’s house, but before she could leave with the gold, police arrived. Lambert promptly sent a WhatsApp message to her co-conspirators, informing them that authorities were closing in. Unfortunately for her, it was too late.
The Alleged Roles of the Defendants
The five accused each had a specific role in the scheme. Lambert and Stevens were the couriers, taking gold bars and other items straight from victims. Meanwhile, authorities accuse Parekh, Darji, and Singh of acting as handlers, orchestrating the scheme, and traversing multiple locations to retrieve the stolen funds. They communicated through apps such as WhatsApp, seeking to avoid detection by law enforcement.
The fraud had a broad reach, involving victims in Arizona, California, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio. The complexities of the operation demonstrate how coordinated and calculated the scammers were in targeting older people.
What’s Next for the Defendants?
If convicted, the defendants may face up to 30 years in federal prison and a $1 million fine. The charges of wire fraud conspiracy are serious, especially given the high quantities of money involved and the deliberate targeting of vulnerable victims.
Law enforcement is pushing families to educate their older relatives about these types of frauds, which continue to pose a significant threat across the country. Scams like these deprive people not just of their money but also of their sense of security and confidence.
