A Maryland man was sentenced to 18 months in jail and ordered to pay $40,000 in restitution for his role in a gold bar scam targeting an elderly victim in Montgomery County.
According to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office, “Today in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, MD, the Honorable Sharon Burrell sentenced defendant Vipul Thakkar, 53, of Owings Mills to ten years in prison suspending all but 18 months to serve and five years of supervised probation upon release. The judge also ordered Thakkar to pay $40,000 in restitution to the victim he helped to target in a Gold Bar Scam.
On July 24, 2024, Thakkar was arrested when he arrived at a victim’s house in Bethesda to pick up $246,500 worth of gold bars. Through the course of the investigation, detectives with the Montgomery County Police Financial Crimes Section determined that on July 16, 2024, Thakkar picked up $40,000 in cash from an 80-year-old victim in a shopping center parking lot located at 3860 International Drive in Silver Spring.
Assistant State’s Attorneys Hannah Gleason and Robert Hill prosecuted this case.”