Third North Texas jewelry store raided over alleged connections to $74 million gold scam targeting seniors
Federal and state law enforcement raided a jewelry store in Richardson on Wednesday, the latest North Texas business implicated in an alleged widespread fraud scheme involving gold.
A team of 20 SWAT officers swept into Malani Jewelers on North Central Expressway, detaining 13 employees and seizing crates full of gold from inside. Authorities allege the jewelry store was one of a network of businesses that laundered stolen gold purchased by victims of what's known as the gold bar scam.
As that raid was underway in Richardson on Wednesday morning, federal and state law enforcement were simultaneously raiding jewelry stores in Atlanta and Orlando. More than $50 million worth of gold was recovered in the three raids.
Last month, CBS News Texas was with the Collin County Sheriff's Office as deputies participated in similar simultaneous raids of Tilak Jewelers in Irving and Saima Jewelers in Frisco, which resulted in the seizure of millions of dollars in cash and gold.
The gold bar scam
Victims of the gold bar scam are often seniors. Fraudsters will contact their victims by email or text message claiming to be law enforcement, warning them that either their bank accounts were hacked or they were in legal trouble. The scammers then direct the victims to withdraw cash to buy gold and hand it over to a courier.
Authorities say the stores have been buying some of that gold from the couriers and laundering it by melting it down into jewelry, primarily bracelets. The items are then either sold to unsuspecting customers or smuggled out of the country. Malani Jewelers and Saima Jewelers are both accused of running illegal gold melting operations.
Since early last year, a task force set up by the Collin County Sheriff's Office has arrested more than a dozen suspected couriers from around DFW.
CBS News Texas recently spoke with the daughter of Robert Brown, a retiree in Little Elm who lost $2 million to the scam.
"It cleaned out his retirement savings," Katie Brown said.
He died in November without ever recovering the money.
Authorities believe that victims in Collin County alone have lost $13 million to the scam, and Texans statewide have lost $74.5 million.
So far, this investigation has netted about 20 arrests. But the most important thing authorities want is try to recover money to return to the more than 200 known victims.