A California man has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison after stealing nearly $800,000 from a woman in Montgomery County, Maryland, through a gold bar scam that authorities believe is targeting victims nationwide.
Wenhui Sun, 35, was sentenced Tuesday in Montgomery County Circuit Court for his part in the scam, which targeted a woman who lived in the “Leisure World” retirement community in Silver Spring in February and March of 2024.
The woman was told to turn over gold bars to fake FBI agents; the theft totaled $789,000.
The Washington Post reported the victim in the case was a 65-year-old woman who was planning to use her savings to pay for medical costs and to help out family members. She now worries she may lose her home.
Sun picked up gold bars from the woman once and attempted to pick up another round, with hopes of swindling her out of $1.1 million. That second pickup was set up by law enforcement after the woman reported the scam.
Investigators believe an international organized crime ring has been targeting older adults in Montgomery County and around the country.
At times, suspects posing as federal agents have conned victims out of their life savings; for example, an 82-year-old woman lost $900,000 in the scam last year.
Sun was convicted in October 2024, making him the first conviction involving the crime ring in Montgomery County, according to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Sun will be on supervised release when he gets out of prison and has been ordered to pay $457,410.34 in restitution. He pleaded guilty to a number of charges including theft schemes over $100,000 and attempted theft over $100,000.
Police said Sun filmed gold bars on his phone that are worth $457,410.34 — the amount he picked up from the woman.
Watch the video evidence below (Courtesy Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office):
How the scam works
The woman reported the theft to police last March, telling investigators she got a phone call form a person who said they were “Mark Cooper” with the Federal Trade Commission.
“Cooper” told the woman “she was the victim of identity theft, which led to a federal investigation involving drugs and money laundering,” court documents state.
That caller then transferred her to a second fake FBI agent, who called himself “Officer David Freeman.”
That scammer said he would give her a new Social Security number and enroll her in the witness protection program. But she was told she’d only receive help if she went along with the investigation.
“Freeman” told the woman to secure her assets by buying gold bars, which would be turned over to FBI agents for safekeeping at the U.S. Treasury Department.
The woman bought roughly $331,818 of gold and eventually turned over five 1-kilogram gold bars to a person she believed to be a courier for the government at a Silver Spring Walgreens location on March 5, 2024.
The driver of the suspect vehicle was later identified by authorities as Neel Patel, who was arrested last August while allegedly trying to flee the county. Patel is expected to be sentenced in May.
The next day, the woman was told to buy more gold bars. She wired $457,411 to make the purchase and met up with a courier, later identified as Sun, at a parking lot on March 8, 2024.
Sun rented a truck in New York and drove to Maryland to pickup the gold bars.
After the second pickup, she called Montgomery County police, who lured Sun in by saying the woman had bought a third round of gold bars to be picked up on March 18, 2024.
But when Sun came to pickup those bars, the box was full of paper. He was arrested after leaving the parking lot.
Sun initially denied he was involved in the scam and claimed he was picking up the package because a friend in China asked him to. He said he wasn’t being paid for the pickup that day, or the prior one on March 8, 2024.
In October 2024, Sun pleaded guilty to the theft charges.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
© 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
