DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — Two men who stole tens of thousands of dollars from a Douglas County woman as part of an elaborate gold bar scheme were each sentenced to six years in prison.
Punit Punit, 30, and Anil Dhiman, 35 were sentenced on Oct. 25 in Douglas County.
They pleaded guilty to the following charges:
- Conspiracy to Commit Theft/At-Risk
- Conspiracy to Commit Theft $100,000 - $1 million
- Attempted Theft $100,000 - $1 million
Under the plea agreement, both were sentenced to six years in the Department of Corrections and were ordered to pay restitution.
According to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, a pop-up appeared on the victim's iPad on March 12 and prevented her from using it. She reported that the message directed her to call a phone number.
The 76-year-old woman called the number and was told her identity and financial bank accounts had been compromised and that someone was writing fraudulent checks for pornography websites. The caller said that to safeguard her money, she needed to open a new bank account and transfer money into it. The victim transferred over $200,000 into a new account.
The caller, who identified himself as an “agent,” then instructed her to use those funds to purchase gold bars from a local Gold and Silver store in Littleton.
The victim purchased approximately $203,000 in gold bars and was instructed to hand deliver them to an “undercover agent” in the parking lot of a business in Castle Pines. After the victim gave the “undercover agent” the gold bars, the victim continued receiving calls and messages requesting additional gold bars to restore her identity.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office worked with the victim to set up a sting operation. When the victim showed up at a parking lot to drop off additional gold bars to the “agent,” detectives moved in and arrested Punit and Dhiman.
“These defendants targeted and preyed on an elderly adult – not once, but twice – forever changing the victims’ lives,” said Deputy District Attorney Sherri Giger.
“Because of their selfish actions, this victim and her husband will not be able to enjoy the retirement they worked their entire lives to build," Giger said. "Had Mr. Dhiman and Mr. Punit not been caught, I have no doubt that they would have continued targeting more vulnerable victims through this scheme.”
The investigation revealed both defendants lived in California and traveled to Colorado to run the scam, and that both were involved in a similar theft in California.
In a separate, unrelated case, an 81-year-old woman reported a similar scam in late March. In this case, the woman purchased $429,000 in gold bars and dropped them off to a man in a black SUV in a parking lot in Littleton. She wrote down the license plate, and a detective tracked the scammer to Illinois. Police there detained him and recovered $1.1 million in gold bars belonging to the woman in Douglas County and another victim in Kansas City.
