MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — A man will spend years in prison for his part in a gold bar scam that stole a man's life savings in Montgomery County.
Ravinklejeet Mathon, 26, was sentenced to 10 years in prison by Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Margaret Schweitzer.
Mathon pleaded guilty in October to attempted theft and conspiracy to commit theft. Mathon will serve five years in prison, with the rest of the time suspended. Additionally, Mathon will spend another five years under probation following his release.
Mathon's charges stem from a scam where a 94-year-old man was convinced to exchange his life savings of $229,848 in exchange for three 1-kilo gold bars and hand the gold over to him. Mathon pretended to be a federal agent while on the phone with the victim.
"The guidelines for non-violent, white-collar crime are typically low and were not designed to deal with crimes of this magnitude or complexity," said State’s Attorney John McCarthy. "The gold bar scams are unique due to the level of international, organized crime involved. In addition, there was special vulnerability in this case due to the victim’s advanced age of 94."
Montgomery County Police found out about the scam and arrested Mathon after he picked up the valuable gold bars from the victim's house. Law enforcement said in October that they believed that this gold bar scam was part of a reoccurring organized crime ring.
Multiple Montgomery County residents have fallen victim to similar gold bar scams since the beginning of the year. In August, officials said thieves had stolen more than $6.3 million from seven victims using gold bar scams.
In November a mother and daughter handed over $2.3 million in gold bars to scammers who had convinced them that their bank accounts had been compromised and were being used to fund human trafficking. A day later, police announced the arrest in another gold bar scam, where a Bethesda couple was told their bank accounts had been connected to child porn and Russian missiles.
In May, Prosecutor John McCarthy begged seniors to use caller ID and never pick up a call or respond to a text from an unknown number.
“The government does not communicate with you by text message or phone calls, it's just not the way they do it," McCarthy said.
He also warned seniors never to respond to individuals urging them to act immediately, and never make financial decisions such as purchasing gold bars without at least two trusted advisors for oversight.