Fake FBI Agents Tried $125K Gold Scam, Cops Say

Two men from New Jersey are charged with attempting to defraud an elderly woman from Long Island of $125,000 in gold.

Fenil Bambharoliya and Jay Radadiya (left).

According to Nassau County Police, a man posing as an FBI agent phoned an 80-year-old woman in Massapequa on Thursday, July 24, setting off the attempted theft.

The alleged agent informed the woman that she was the subject of a federal investigation and threatened to arrest her unless she paid $125,000 in gold and turned it in. He threatened to send a courier to her house to pick up the gold.

When the woman attempted to purchase the gold, detectives were notified of the suspicious conduct. According to authorities, 23-year-old Jay Radadiya, wearing a mask, arrived at the woman’s house at 11:30 a.m. to pick up the woman while investigators were waiting there.

After a brief scuffle, Jersey City resident Radadiya was apprehended after attempting to flee from the police. According to police, a second suspect, Fenil Bambharoliya, 22, of Jersey City, was taken into custody close by while he was waiting in a car.

Radadiya faces charges of resisting arrest, second-degree attempted grand larceny, and breaking the state’s Mask Transparency Act. Bambharoliya faces charges of attempted grand larceny in the second degree.

The arraignment of both men was set for Friday, July 25, at Hempstead’s First District Court.

Anyone who believes they may have been the target of the criminals is being asked by police to contact Nassau County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-244-TIPS.