After Being Scammed Out Of $84K In Gold Bars, Concord Woman Targeted Again For $61K, NY Man Charged

CONCORD, NH — A man from New York is facing a felony charge after being accused of attempting to scam an elderly woman out of $61,101 after she was previously scammed in June for $84,000.

On June 10, police received a report from a man who reported an elderly woman who was scammed out of $84,000 earlier that day. The scammers reportedly convinced the woman they were diversifying her money.

The scam, according to training and experience, a detective wrote, involved cheating people out of gold, melting the bars down, due to the bars being serialized, and then laundering the money for legitimate funds like jewelry and other goods.

A couple of weeks later, an officer learned the 24 bars were purchased at the Express Jewelry Center at 6 N. Main St. in Concord, and a detective was assigned to the case.

Police also learned the scammers were still in communication with the victim, using multiple phone numbers. They were calling the woman’s home, pretending to be officers with the Merrimack County Sheriff’s Office, according to an affidavit. They claimed she had legal issues she had to resolve. They also had foreign accents, the report said

Editor's note: This post was derived from information supplied by the Concord Police Department and does not indicate a conviction. This link explains the process for requesting the removal of a name from New Hampshire Patch police reports.

The detective began working with the man and the elderly woman to continue communicating with the fake officers. The affidavit claimed the fake officers asked her to communicate with her bank, find out how much money she had, and to go buy more gold bars, to resolve a case she had with the federal government on July 1. The woman told the fake officer she had 19 gold bars valued at $66,101.

“‘Officer Gray’ agreed that this amount of gold bars would resolve her case,” the affidavit said.

The report said communications halted but picked up again on July 2. Two detectives remained with the woman while she spoke with one of the fake officers, who arranged for a pickup at the woman’s home on Cypress Street. Around 6 p.m., the officer asked the woman to take a photo of herself and send it to him, which she did, the report stated. He also gave the woman a password to get from the person picking up the package. The fake officer then told her to step outside with the gold and walk to an awaiting car. The woman carried a fake package out to the car, a 2024 Honda Accord with New York plates, with the detectives following behind.

Several detectives and an agent from Homeland Security stopped the car and detained two men: A man in his early 30s, who was determined later to be a taxi driver in a rental vehicle, and Jaykumar Jayantibhai Raval, 20, of 147th Street in Flushing, NY, who was “positively identified through Homeland Security’s Facial Recognition Software, as he was unable to provide any form of identification roadside,” the report stated.

Raval was accused of being given a ride from New York to Concord by the other man “at the direction of someone he knew as ‘White Devil,’” the report said. He claimed to have been working for months for “White Devil,” picking up numerous packages, “for monetary benefit,” the affidavit said. “White Devil” reportedly threatened Raval, calling him a police officer that he was afraid of, and was worried he would report him since he was seeking asylum, the detective wrote. Raval said he was communicating with “White Devil” during the entire interaction, “had a feeling that what he was doing was wrong, but claimed he did not know what exactly was in the packages that he picked up,” the detective said.

Raval was arrested on a felony count of conspiracy to commit theft by deception-$1,501-plus. He was processed, held on preventative detention, and taken to county.

The detective wrote Raval had a non-extraditable warrant out of Altoona, Iowa, for larceny, issued on May 7. Another detective called police in Iowa and learned Raval was accused of stealing “a large quantity of cash from an elderly woman that was the result of a phone scam,” the report stated.

Raval was arraigned in Concord District Court on July 3. Probable cause was found in the case, according to a judge. Bail was set at $100,000 cash as well as GPS monitoring if released, the report stated. Raval requested a lawyer, claiming he was unemployed and reporting $100 in checking and savings accounts as well as a $600 monthly rent or mortgage commitment.

The case was boundover to the Merrimack County Superior Court on July 14. He has a dispositional conference booked for Sept. 25.

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