Two men are facing federal charges in San Diego for their alleged roles in a gold bar scam that defrauded more than $3.1 million from an elderly San Diego couple, while a third suspect was killed last month when he was struck on Interstate 5 while fleeing from law enforcement, according to court records unsealed this week.
The fatal crash happened Feb. 25 near the California Highway Patrol inspection site and Border Patrol checkpoint in San Onofre after investigators had set a trap for the alleged fraudsters and Orange County sheriff’s deputies were attempting to take two of the men into custody, according to court records.
That incident remains under investigation by both the CHP and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
The case is centered on a fraud scheme in which a 94-year-old San Diego man and his 87-year-old wife were tricked into believing they were working with government officials to safeguard their money from identity thieves, according to a criminal complaint. Instead, over roughly a year’s time, they handed over to the scammers seven batches of gold bars worth a total of $3,188,716.
“It’s especially disturbing to see criminals steal millions from victims in their 80s and 90s — people who should be enjoying security and dignity in their final years,” U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon told the Union-Tribune. “Those who target elderly victims through sophisticated fraud schemes will find that our office is equally determined and sophisticated in pursuing accountability, particularly when organized criminal networks are involved.”
In addition to the gold bars the victims lost, they also sent a wire transfer of nearly $29,000 to the alleged scammers and had purchased an eighth batch of gold bars worth more than $493,000 that they were prepared to turn over when a family member finally stepped in and contacted law enforcement, according to the complaint.
Investigators soon learned that the scheme began in March 2025 when the wife answered a call from an unknown number, got caught in a conversation about a Walmart purchase she didn’t make and soon believed her identity had been compromised and that she was speaking with an employee of the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General, according to the complaint.
Soon enough, the victims were convinced there was a drug investigation tied to the identity theft, and that they needed to convert the money in their financial accounts into gold bars that would be safeguarded by government officials, according to court records. An early email from the alleged scammers contained a purported non-disclosure agreement prohibiting the couple from discussing the fake investigations; subsequent emails and forgeries were aimed at convincing the couple of the legitimacy of their predicament, such as one letter purporting to be signed by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and receipts provided for the gold bars that the couple believed were signed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Once legitimate law enforcement officials learned of the scheme, they set a trap, directing the victims to play along with the fraudsters as if they were going to hand over the eighth batch of gold bars on Feb. 25, according to the complaint. As officers conducted surveillance in and around the victims’ home ahead of the exchange, they identified three people believed to be involved in retrieving the gold bars — two men in a Lexus sedan who spent hours watching the victims’ home, and a third man in a separate vehicle who arrived later to make the pickup.
The exchange went as planned, with the third man providing the victim a pre-agreed password and the victim handing over a heavy box — but it was filled with books, not gold bars, according to the complaint. At that point, officers moved in and arrested the man with the box of books while other officers set off in search of the two men in the Lexus, which they had linked to a home in Rosemead in the San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County.
Officers were unable to locate the Lexus near the San Diego victims’ home, so they relayed details about the Lexus and its occupants to a “highway interdiction team” from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, according to the complaint. A short time later, Orange County deputies located the Lexus and stopped it along I-5 near the CHP inspection facility in the San Onofre area.
Deputies had removed the two men from the Lexus when the passenger took off running, crossing a parking lot and the northbound lanes of I-5 before jumping over a center divider and being fatally stuck by a southbound driver, according to the complaint and information provided this week by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
A sheriff’s spokesperson said two deputies were present during the stop. “Our Department is handling the investigation related to the traffic stop and a firearm that was recovered from the vehicle,” spokesperson Carrie Braun said. “In addition, we are conducting an administrative review of the incident.”
The CHP is investigating the fatal crash.
The driver of the Lexus, a 35-year-old Rosemead resident, and the man who picked up the box of books, a 33-year-old Las Vegas resident, are facing a charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering. According to the complaint, the men are suspected of being part of an informal Chinese money laundering network that helps collect and launder fraud proceeds for foreign-based scammers.
According to the complaint, the FBI was able to identify additional victims from information found on the Las Vegas suspect’s phone, including an Arizona man who lost more than $141,000 in a scheme that appeared similar to the one that tricked the San Diego couple.