A 59-year-old Florida man, Gary Christopher, was arrested on April 10, and charged by criminal complaint with conspiring to launder money for his role as a courier in a broader fraud scheme that targeted an elderly victim in Phoenix.
According to the Department of Justice’s complaint, Christopher’s co-conspirators contacted the elderly victim, falsely claiming that she was the victim of identity theft. A co-conspirator, impersonating a former United States Attorney, instructed the victim to purchase gold with the funds in her account and turn it over for safekeeping. The victim transferred over $400,000 in assets to the co-conspirators before discovering she had been defrauded. Christopher, acting as a courier, then traveled to Arizona on April 9 to retrieve an additional $600,000 in gold bullion from the victim. Law enforcement intercepted Christopher when he arrived at the victim’s residence to collect the gold. Investigators recovered evidence that Christopher received instructions outlining the steps for picking up and transferring the gold from the victim to a co-conspirator.
Phantom hacker scams and government impersonation scams are increasingly prevalent and disproportionately affect elderly victims. Fraudsters in these schemes typically pose as government agents and pressure victims to act quickly to transfer their money to the perpetrators.
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