Investigators accused Weng of being a “courier” in a scam that set up furtive gold bar exchanges in parking lots and used code words like “watermelon” to communicate. The group took more than $900,000 in gold bars and money from their target — an 82-year-old woman — and nearly got another $2.6 million, according to court filings. As in the earlier case, police said, investigators learned of the fraud scheme, turned the tables on the alleged scammers by disguising themselves as a victim and arrested a suspect after he pulled into a parking lot thinking he was getting more gold bars. There is no indication from court filings that the cases are related.
Weng’s defense attorney, while arguing Tuesday his client should be released from jail pending further court proceedings, noted his client was accused only of trying to make a pickup. “It’s certainly not that a $900,000 fraud scheme of an 82-year-old in Montgomery County isn’t serious conduct,” said the attorney, Andrew Treske, “I think the question is, ‘What was Mr. Weng’s involvement?’”
Treske said there is no indication Weng set up the scam or communicated with the mastermind behind it.
The judge questioned how he’d be in the dark.
“So he drove from New York down here to pick up a package from an elderly woman and doesn’t know there’s probably something illegal going on?” Oliver wondered. “I don’t know.”
In court filings, investigators described the scam much like one in March that resulted in a resident of Montgomery County’s Leisure World community getting bilked out of $789,000.
In the new case, the woman was working at her computer when she received a “website alert” claiming that “criminals had flagged her computer, bank account, and social security number,” investigators wrote in court papers. She called a provided number and was told that many others had also been hit and she needed to secure her money. Around April 22, police say, a person from the group using the name “Tracy” convinced the victim to transfer $46,000 into another account “to prevent Russia from stealing it,” investigators asserted. The scammers later persuaded her to purchase gold bars from legitimate precious-metal dealers and have them sent to her home.
In court filings, detectives described the ruse broadly as a “government impostor scam,” whereby fraudsters pretend to be officials from the FBI, Department of Justice, Treasury Department, Federal Trade Commission or other agencies. They convince targets their bank holdings aren’t safe and they should liquidate into gold bars, cashiers checks or cash itself. Once gold bars arrive at the victim’s homes, the scammers convince their targets to hand them over — doing so in meetings cloaked in secrecy because of the supposed criminals moving in on them — all with the understanding the targets will get their holdings back when things are safe.
“Doctors, lawyers, executives. I’ve seen pretty much any victim,” FBI Supervisory Special Agent Keith Custer said of gold bar and related scams, adding, “Once the victim is on the hook, the scammer will keep going.”
In the case involving Weng, police say, a man posing as an “undercover agent” met the victim at a Wendy’s restaurant on May 3 and took possession of $266,948.75 worth of gold bars. The scammers then convinced her to buy several hundred thousand dollars more in gold bars, met her at a shopping center, and stole it, according to police.
Still on the hook, and still scared she would lose her savings if she didn’t act, the woman purchased $2.55 million more in gold bars from a company based in Massachusetts. But she grew suspicious, police say, and the new gold orders were stopped before they were shipped. As the woman began working with detectives, she spoke with the scammers, according to court records. The courier eventually agreed to pick up a gold bar from her, valued at about $75,000, on July 15.
But the courier was instead heading into a sting operation, police say.
A detective “portrayed herself as the victim and placed a cardboard box, which was said to contain the gold bar, in the rear passenger seat of the victim’s vehicle,” according to charging documents.
The detective then drove to an arranged meeting spot, parked, and waited for a man to show up. He did so, saying the code word “watermelon,” and opened a rear door, grabbed the box and left — only to be quickly arrested by plainclothes officers who had the parking lot under surveillance, court documents said.
Weng was interviewed by detectives, “and made admissions that he was to meet the victim to pick up a package and was to get paid $500 to $1,000,” police said.
While being booked into jail, Weng said he was born in China, lived with his mother in Brooklyn and had been there for seven years. He said he worked as a server as a Chinese restaurant. In court Tuesday, a corrections official said Weng would not provide his parents’ contact information because he didn’t want them to be called.
In the earlier case, Wenhui Sun, who was first arrested in March, was indicted on May 2 by a Montgomery County grand jury on four theft-related counts, according to court records. He remains held on no bond and has a Dec. 2 trial date set.
Sun’s attorney, Andrew Jezic, declined to comment Tuesday
Montgomery Police Detective Sean Petty, a financial crimes investigator, said the county’s relative wealth may play a role in residents being targeted. He said the victims tend to be older, trusting, and have saved a lot of money. His advice: “If anyone contacts you via text message, email, phone call, or by any other means and says that they are with any federal/state agency and you need to purchase gold for safekeeping, you should immediately think that this is a scam.”
And when in doubt, he added, call the police.