Zhong Ren, a Chinese man from Brooklyn, was arrested by local police after he allegedly stole gold bars worth more than $550,000 from an elderly woman in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Ren Zhong was recently charged with multiple crimes including illegal theft and theft by fraud.
The Ephrata Police Department in Lancaster County said that in April this year, a local elderly woman reported to the Ephrata Police Department that she had gold bars worth $555,892 stolen. After the police intervened in the investigation, they found that an unidentified person had hacked into the elderly woman’s computer in March this year. The scammer, who pretended to be a federal employee, told the victim that someone was trying to withdraw funds from her investment account. The scammer instructed the elderly to exchange the money in the investment account for gold bars and give them to them.
The scammer said that during the investigation of the fraud case, the gold would be stored in the Federal Reserve vault in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the gold bars would be safe there. After the investigation is completed, all the gold bars will be returned. In April this year, a scammer claiming to be a federal employee went to the victim’s home twice and collected a total of $555,892 worth of gold bars. After that, the female victim felt that she had been deceived and chose to call the police.
After a thorough and detailed investigation, detectives from the Ephrata Police Department and the Buckingham Police Department in Bucks County jointly determined that one of the scammers in the case was Ren Zhong, 44, who reported to live in Brooklyn. According to law enforcement, Ren Zhong is likely a member of an international criminal organization that engages in such fraudulent activities. The criminal organization may be related to multiple such frauds.
After Ren Zhong was arrested by the police, he was charged on July 10 with theft by unlawful taking, criminal conspiracy of theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, criminal conspiracy of theft by deception, and impersonating a public servant related to the case.
According to court documents, Ren Zhong is currently being held in Lancaster County Jail on $550,000 bail and has not yet been released. Ren Zhong’s next court appearance is July 18.
