Authorities raided two North Texas jewelry stores on Thursday, arresting three people and seizing millions in cash and gold linked to a nationwide scam that defrauded Texas seniors out of more than $55 million.
The operations at Tilak Jewelers in Irving and Saima Jewelers in Frisco capped a yearlong probe by the Collin County Sheriff’s Office and federal partners.
Store owners are accused of buying gold from couriers who collected it from scam victims, then melting it into items such as bracelets for resale to unwitting buyers or for export abroad.
“You call Collin County and you go to defraud our citizens, we’re going to come get you, that’s just the bottom line,” said Collin County Sheriff Jim Skinner, CBS News Texas reported.
The scheme, dubbed the “gold bar scam,” begins with emails warning elderly targets of fabricated criminal probes and arrest threats unless they secretly buy gold or liquidate assets to deliver to couriers. Participants along the chain shared profits.
“The suspects convinced victims [that they] were under federal investigation and instructed them to comply with specific instructions under strict secrecy for all the obvious reasons,” Skinner said. “The victims, they were directed to liquidate their assets or purchase large quantities of gold and precious metals.”
About 200 victims aged 65 and older in Collin County lost $7,283,342.78 in retirement funds, part of the statewide total exceeding $55 million. One individual was swindled out of more than $1 million in cash.
“These are extremely difficult cases to investigate,” said Skinner. “In this case, this has been life-saving; one person was taken for over $1 million, and I mean cash money.”
A task force has been arresting suspected couriers across the Dallas-Fort Worth area since early last year.
Two arrests occurred at the Irving location and one in Frisco during the raids, which involved dozens of officers from multiple agencies.
Investigators confiscated all inventory from displays and vaults, using a Brinks armored truck to transport the haul. Authorities aim to forfeit the assets to reimburse victims, building on over $400,000 already recovered and returned.
Skinner planned to address the case and elder fraud in Washington on Friday, noting the crime’s spread nationwide.
