Bay Area men accused of defrauding elderly victim out of $450K in cash and gold
By Tim Fang
Three Bay Area men have been arrested on suspicion of grand theft, elder abuse and other charges for allegedly defrauding an elderly victim out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gold.
On Thursday, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office announced the results of an investigation that began two weeks earlier, when a resident told deputies they were the victim of a phone scam. The resident said the value of the stolen items was more than $450,000.
Deputies said the scammer claimed to be an agent of the government and convinced victims that their bank accounts had been hacked.
Property crime detectives with the sheriff’s office worked with the victim, creating an operation to identify and arrest the suspects. Last week, the suspects contacted the victim again and arranged for a courier to pick up more gold.
Following the pickup, detectives followed the courier to Fremont and identified three suspects.
“One suspect was followed and eventually arrested at a local FedEx office attempting to mail the gold to another state,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
The suspects, identified as Keyur Chodvadiya, Kuldip Choudhary and Mohammed Essa, were arrested and transported back to Sonoma County. They were booked into jail on suspicion of grand theft, theft by false pretenses, conspiracy, possession of stolen property and elder abuse.
About $70,000 worth of gold has been recovered, according to deputies.
The sheriff’s office reminded residents that no government agency or business will contact them asking to access bank accounts or take money for safe keeping.
