Owings Mills Man Arrested in Connection with Gold Bar Scams

For Immediate Release: Thursday, July 25, 2024

Gaithersburg, MD – A 52-year-old Owings Mills man has been arrested in connection with government-imposter related gold bar scams.

On Wednesday, July 17, 2024, a 74-year-old Bethesda man contacted the Montgomery County Department of Police Financial Crimes Section to report that he believed he had been scammed after seeing a local news report of a woman losing nearly $1 million dollars in a gold bar scam.

The victim stated that he received an email stating that a suspicious deposit had been made into the victim’s bank account and an unknown suspect instructed the victim to convert his money into gold to protect his assets.

On ten separate occasions between March and June of 2024, the victim purchased a total of over $1.1 million dollars in gold bars and arranged to have the gold picked up by the suspect’s associates.

After making a final purchase of over $240,000 dollars in gold bars, the victim saw the news report and contacted police.

On Wednesday, July 24, a Montgomery County detective communicated with the suspect and arranged a pick-up at the victim’s home. A detective posing as the victim, handed a package to Vipul J. Thakkar, who then got into a car and drove away. Officers stopped Thakkar, and he was arrested.

Thakkar was transported to the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit and charged with multiple counts of attempted theft.

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He is being held without bond.

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