GAINESVILLE, Florida — Ten people — seven of them young Californians, two from DeLand, Florida, and one from Pennsylvania — have been indicted in federal court over an alleged 'gold bar' scam that talked an elderly Gainesville woman into handing over $101,220 worth of gold at a gas station, and then tried to take more than $400,000 more from her before FBI agents set a trap. United States Attorney John P. Heekin for the Northern District of Florida announced the indictment on Thursday, November 5.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Northern District of Florida

The seven California defendants are Gurpinder Singh, 20; Yashdeep Singh, 20; Kuljeet Singh, 22; Navjeet Singh, 25; Akashdeep Singh, 25; Harshdeep Kaur, 24; and Manpreet Singh, 26. The Florida defendants are Sierra Stites, 35, and Carissa Snow, 37, both of DeLand, and the Pennsylvania defendant is Reese Lightner, 39. Each is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

How investigators say the scam worked

According to the criminal complaint detailed by the Alachua Chronicle from court records, the case began on May 22, when a Gainesville Police Department detective was contacted by FBI and IRS agents who had identified an elderly local woman being targeted. She told agents she had received an email that looked as if it came from Amazon, warning of a problem with her Campus USA credit union account. She called the number in the email and spoke to a man calling himself 'John Harris,' who told her that her identity had been stolen and her Social Security number compromised.

Source: Alachua Chronicle (court complaint)

She was transferred to a second man, calling himself 'Michael Chappel,' who said he was an agent of the Federal Trade Commission and instructed her to withdraw money from her credit union account and buy gold bars. The victim paid $101,220 for gold at a local coin and jewelry store, was told to put the gold in a box marked with an 'FTC ID number' and to send 'Michael' the receipt — and on May 16 she delivered the gold at a gas station in Orange Lake to a man presented as a Treasury Department agent, the complaint says.

The callers then came back for more. When FBI and IRS agents reached her, the same people were allegedly pressing her to pay over $400,000 more in gold, supposedly to protect her money and obtain a new Social Security number. This time the agents and the Gainesville detective helped her instead: she sent the callers photographs of $497,229 in gold bars, and 'Michael' directed her to hand the gold to a 'Treasury agent' in Gainesville.

The June 1 sting on SW Archer Road

The pickup was set for noon on June 1 at a bank on SW Archer Road, with the victim waiting in her vehicle and multiple undercover FBI and Alachua County Sheriff's Office units nearby, according to the complaint. Agents watched a black Kia whose driver appeared to be watching the victim's vehicle; when she was redirected to a gas station near SW Archer Road and SW 122nd Street, the Kia followed her, and the driver was detained there. He was identified from an Indian passport and a California driver's licence as Gurpinder Singh, who reportedly said he had recently flown in from California; the car had been rented in Pensacola. After being read his rights, Singh reportedly told agents this was his first pickup, then declined to answer further questions.

June reporting by the American Bazaar, citing the Alachua County Sheriff's Office, described Singh as a resident of French Camp, California, held without bond at the Alachua County Jail at that time, with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer lodged against him. Those were the state-level proceedings in June; the federal indictment announced on November 5 is the new development, and it names nine further defendants alongside Singh.

Charges, court dates and what happens next

All ten defendants have appeared in federal court in Gainesville for arraignment before United States Magistrate Judge Midori A. Lowry. A jury trial is scheduled for December 30, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. before Chief United States District Judge Allen C. Winsor in Gainesville, the U.S. Attorney's Office said, in reporting also carried by Main Street Daily News. If convicted, each defendant faces up to 20 years in prison on the wire-and-mail-fraud conspiracy count and up to 20 years on the money-laundering conspiracy count.

Source: Main Street Daily News

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, IRS Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations and the Gainesville Police Department, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Adam Hapner as part of the federal Homeland Security Task Force initiative. An indictment is only an allegation by a grand jury: all ten defendants are presumed innocent, and the government must prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

Why this case matters beyond Gainesville

Prosecutors describe gold-bar courier scams as a repeat pattern across the United States: a frightened elderly victim, a fake official on the phone, savings converted into gold, and a young courier sent to collect it — in this case, investigators say, a 20-year-old who had flown in from California days or hours earlier. Police in Friendswood, Texas, reported a similar organised gold-scam investigation in October, including the arrest of a California courier. For Punjabi and South Asian families, the Gainesville case cuts both ways: elderly relatives are prime targets of the phone script, and young newcomers risk being recruited as the couriers who take the legal fall. The trial on December 30 will test whether prosecutors can tie all ten defendants to a single conspiracy.