Bharat Awasarmol, 49, residing in New Jersey, pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday to fraud charges related to a scheme spanning five states, including Maine, and seven victims in which he posed as a public official to convince people to give him gold.
[RELATED: Scammer Busted for Impersonating FTC Commissioner and Convincing Victims to Hand Over Their Gold…]
According to the U.S. District Court in Portland, Awasarmol conspired with other unnamed individuals to impersonate government officials over the phone, demanding that the victims purchase gold to hand over to the “government” for “safekeeping.”
Awasarmol was arrested by FBI agents while accepting a package of gold from a victim in Maine. He reportedly impersonated an official with the Federal Trade Commission and provided the FBI with false information about his role in the conspiracy.
He pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, for which he faces a potential 20-year sentence and a $250,000 fine, as well as a charge of making false statements to an FBI agent, for which he could receive up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
An strikingly similar incident took place in Round Pond in late November, when Gautam Harkhani, 35, of Erwin, Texas, was arrested while attempting to pick up a package of gold from an elderly victim.
He reportedly also impersonated a Federal Trade Commission official and informed the victim that she was subject to active arrest warrants. He told her that she could get rid of the warrants if she purchased gold to be handed to a “courier,” who was Harkhani himself.
Harkhani reportedly succeeded in stealing $261,000 from the woman through the scam.
