US: How A Woman Enacted As Federal Agent And Made $1.5 Million Loot

Shweta Patel, a Gujarati immigrant to the US, conned a Florida man out of $1.5 million (about Rs 12.52 crore) by pretending to be a federal agent. She also defrauded an elderly North Carolina woman of $25,000. The fraud was discovered on May 9th, when Patel, 42, was taken into custody by the authorities.

In a multi-state gold bar scam, con artists acting as federal officials persuade their victims to buy gold bullion and give it to them for safekeeping. Patel has emerged as a major player in this scheme. The victim is obviously defrauded of the gold. Patel disclosed during interrogation that she was only a messenger for an enigmatic person she called "King."

A Well-planned Scam

The devious scheme started in February when two imposters, pretending to be federal officials, showed up at the victim's house bearing a fictitious arrest order alleging financial problems. When their "supervisor" was called, they told a false story about how the victim could benefit society in various ways rather than going to jail.
According to a tweet from Bradenton police's official account on X, this "supervisor" spoke with the victim every day for the following month, developing a relationship and trust. Eventually, the con artist managed to fool the victim into believing he was a part of a sting intended to catch social security fraudsters. The drawback? To complete the procedure, he would need to cough up some hefty "seed money".

The victim was tricked into turning his roughly $1.5 million in retirement savings into gold bars over the course of many weeks. After that, Shweta Patel is said to have gone to the victim's home while posing as a police officer, taken the gold bars, and vanished. One of the cars used for the drop-off was tracked down by investigators to Patel, who was living in Georgia and serving as a mule for the scam. Patel disclosed during interrogation that she was only a messenger for an enigmatic person she called "King".

Patel is charged with grand theft of more than $100,000.

Investigative agency sources claim that this kind of crime is common among undocumented immigrants from India, particularly those from Gujarat. Furthermore, it's not just the Indians. These sophisticated schemes are also operated by illegal immigrants from China.