A New Jersey man accused of stealing over $500,000 in gold and $91,000 in cash from a 74-year-old Lehigh County man will serve time in state prison.
Hirtik Hemchand Khatri, 25, of Lawrence Township, New Jersey, pleaded guilty in November to felony charges of theft by extortion, theft by unlawful taking and criminal use of a communication facility. On Friday, Lehigh County Judge Thomas M. Caffrey sentences Khatri to 12 to 36 months in prison and two years of probation.
Khatri will also pay over $600,000 in restitution to the victim.
According to a news release from Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan, the victim of the theft, whose name was not released, reached out to Whitehall Township Police in February 2025.
He told police he had been a victim of a lengthy scam that began with an email to him about an allegedly fraudulent charge on his PayPal account.
Khatri, via email, told the victim he would be responsible for the error and must repay PayPal by going to area gas stations with a Bitcoin kiosk to complete the transaction. The scam continued, with Khatri calling the victim to tell him that errors with his PayPal account had continued, and he must repay them via cryptocurrency, cash or gold.
He was told that if payments were not made, he would be arrested and put in jail, which caused him to continue to make the payments. He withdrew funds from his IRA and purchased $600,000 of gold bars which Khatri picked up.
A license plate reader identified Khatri as the scam’s perpetrator after he picked up the gold from the victim’s home.
According to the news release, such scams targeting the elderly are becoming more commonplace. Scammers choose to target older citizens because they have more savings than younger people and are easier to defraud with technology like PayPal and Bitcoin.
Holihan reminded people to be suspicious of anyone who contacts you via phone asking for large sums of money, and anyone who requests large amounts of untraceable funds like cryptocurrency, cash, gift cards or valuable metals are almost certainly perpetrating a scam.
Anyone who believes they may have been scammed in Lehigh County can contact the Elder Abuse Task Force at 610-782-3700.
Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.