BRADENTON, FL — A Bradenton Police Department elder fraud investigation that began in 2024 after an 80-year-old veteran lost about $1.4 million has been linked to a nationwide conspiracy.
The local case centered on a gold bar scam in which the victim reported losing his life savings after being told he was helping law enforcement, Bradenton police said in a news release.
The victim told detectives that in February 2024, two men came to his home claiming to be U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
They told him there was a warrant for his arrest and that a supervisor would contact him. For about a month, the victim was contacted by a woman who claimed to be a supervisor and said she could help resolve his legal issues if he assisted with an investigation.
The woman instructed him to convert his money into gold bars and hand them to her "agents,” police said.
Believing he was assisting law enforcement, the victim bought about $1.4 million in gold bars in three separate transactions and delivered them to people at predetermined locations, investigators said.
Bradenton detectives traced the victim's money to Swetaban Patel, a Georgia woman who was arrested in April 2024 and charged with grand theft. Patel later agreed to cooperate with federal authorities against her co-conspirators.
Detectives also identified a second suspect, Syed M. Makki. Investigators determined Makki may have been one of the people posing as an "agent" and interacting directly with the victim.
By the time Patel was arrested, Makki was already in custody in Illinois. Authorities said he had been arrested in March 2024 after he was caught transporting gold bars collected from other victims through conspirators in Colorado and Missouri.
Last week, a federal judge sentenced Makki to 15-and-a-half years in prison for his role in the conspiracy and ordered him to pay $4,754,000 in restitution and forfeit the gold bars, police said.
Federal prosecutors said that between 2023 and March 31, 2024, conspirators used computer malware to direct potential victims to fraudulent phone numbers. When victims called, members of the conspiracy posed as Microsoft employees, banking officials, government employees and law enforcement officers, police said.
Federal prosecutors have identified 12 victims to date who collectively lost more than $6 million through the scheme, including the Bradenton man.
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