Laramie police say a Cheyenne coin shop helped stop an elderly woman from being scammed out of more than $450,000 worth of gold, but not before an organized fraud ring had already stolen more than $130,000 from her.
The owner at The Coin Shop in downtown Cheyenne noticed something suspicious when the woman tried to buy more than $450,000 worth of gold shortly after she had already bought $130,000 worth of 1-ounce gold bars, Laramie Police Department Detective Carson Schilt reports.
That led to an investigation that revealed an elaborate scheme to defraud the elderly woman out of hundreds of thousands of dollars that culminated in the arrest of a Canadian man, who’s charged with felony theft and was bound over for an arraignment in Albany County District Court on Friday.
Jithin Sunny was caught after allegedly trying to meet with the person he thought was dropping off the gold for the elderly woman in the alley behind a Laramie fast-food restaurant, Schilt wrote in an affidavit of probable cause filed in Sunny’s case.
For his part, Sunny at first claimed he had no clue about any alleged plot to steal from the older woman, telling police he was on vacation.
He said “that he was vacationing in Laramie for three days and was seeing the ‘sights,’” the affidavit says. “When asked what ‘sights’ he was seeing, he advised that he was just seeing the ‘sights.’”
Sunny, who had identification out of Ottawa, Canada, on him, said he flew into Denver earlier that day, Oct. 2, then took an Uber the 134 miles to Laramie, the affidavit says.
He was dropped off at the Qdoba Mexican restaurant on North 3rd Street in Laramie, which is where the fraud ring had arranged for the $450,000 worth of gold to be handed over to a courier, Schilt wrote.
Investigators observed Sunny in an alley behind the restaurant talking on a cellphone, which he claimed was a call with his brother and that he “was not there to meet anyone or to pick up any package,” the affidavit says.
On Second Thought …
The Canadian man changed his story when talking with investigators at the Laramie Police Department, Schilt wrote.
Instead of being on vacation, he claimed to have been roped into the scheme and was unaware the elderly woman had been a target of illegal activity.
“Jithin Sunny advised that he was contacted by a group on Instagram advertising a job as a ‘delivery person’ in the United States,” the affidavit says. “He accepted the job as long as he was not going to be delivering drugs.”
Those offering the job reassured Sunny that he wouldn’t be handling drugs; rather, he “would be delivering expensive antiques for wealthy people,” the affidavit says.
Sunny then claimed he didn’t know what was supposed to be in the package he was supposed to pick up in Laramie that day or what he was to do with it.
“His instructions were to travel to Laramie, WY, where he was to meet with someone to pick up a package,” he told investigators, Schilt wrote. “He was then to take the package to a different courier once he was in possession of it.”
While he didn’t know the package purportedly had nearly $500,000 worth of gold in it, Sunny “did think that there was something not right with the situation.”
That First $130,000
The investigation began Sept. 22 when Laramie police started looking into the first time the elderly woman was targeted, the affidavit says.
The woman, identified in the affidavit by the initials EV, reported that she had been contacted the month before by people claiming to be with the Federal Trade Commission and other government entities, according to the affidavit.
They convinced the woman that she had been the victim of identity theft and that “her money was at risk,” the affidavit says.
They told the woman that she needed to move her money into a secure account controlled by the Federal Reserve Bank.
She moved about $130,000 from her investment accounts to another account at a Wyoming bank branch, as the alleged fraudsters instructed.
“Your affiant learned that as part of the scheme, the suspects instructed EV to purchase gold and advised that a third-party courier would retrieve the gold from her,” Schilt wrote.
On Aug. 19, she bought $131,640 worth of 1-ounce gold bars from The Coin Shop, then on Aug. 28 met with who she believed to be a courier “at a rural location west of Laramie,” the affidavit says.
After the courier gave a prearranged password, EV handed him the gold and left.
Going For A Bigger Score
Being successful once, the suspects again targeted the older Laramie woman, this time telling her to withdraw more money and buy about $460,000 worth of gold, the affidavit says.
The woman was doing that on Sept. 22 when she returned to The Coin Shop.
“The owner of the business recognized that EV was likely the victim of a scam and intervened,” the affidavit says. “EV subsequently contacted law enforcement.”
What followed was a sting operation to lure the suspects in thinking they were making a bigger score, the affidavit says.
Throughout the process, investigators posing as EV followed instructions like taking photos of the woman’s license plates and sending pictures of the gold.
Because The Coin Shop didn’t have that much gold on hand, “the owner contacted a colleague, who supplied a photograph depicting an amount of gold bullion consistent with the purported transaction,” the affidavit says.
“This was important because the suspects had previously requested photographs from EV during the course of the scheme documenting her purchases,” the document adds.
Another bank also assisted investigators by temporarily processing a $500,000 transaction from the woman’s account, earmarked for The Coin Shop, and generating an account statement verifying the transaction, Schilt wrote.
“The money was thereafter returned to EV’s account,” the affidavit says. “This documentation was created so EV could provide the suspects with apparent proof that she had completed the requested gold purchase.”
It was Sept. 29 when investigators were given a photo of the gold, showing 104 ounces of “assorted gold bullion, including coins, bars, and rounds,” the affidavit says. “At the then-current represented value of $4,355 per ounce, the depicted gold was valued at approximately $452,920.”
The Coin Shop also created a receipt dated Sept. 25 documenting the purchase, showing a delivery date to EV of Oct. 2.
‘Tulip’
That was also the day the suspects instructed EV to bring the gold to the courier at the Qdoba in Laramie, the affidavit says.
Instead, the woman traveled with Detective Schilt to The Coin Shop, where the suspects required her to stay in phone contact with them while she picked up the gold, the affidavit says.
The transaction was staged as if it were real, and they hit the road to Laramie.
Along the way, the suspects continued to give the woman instructions of where and how to deliver the gold, including a password that was to be used with the courier: “tulip.”
With another detective driving the woman’s vehicle and other law enforcement having staked out the area, Sunny was observed trying to stay out of sight in the alley behind Qdoba while on a cellphone, the affidavit says.
Before the transaction was to happen, Sunny got into a vehicle and left, but was picked up down the street during a traffic stop, Schilt wrote.
The affidavit doesn’t mention who the people Sunny purportedly worked for are.
As of Monday, Sunny remained in the Albany County Detention Center on a $20,000 cash bond.
If convicted of felony theft, Sunny could get a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
