A federal judge sentenced Sital Singh to four years in prison on March 12 for his role in a scheme that stole millions of dollars from elderly victims across ten states. U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp also ordered Singh, age 43, to pay $6.6 million in restitution to the victims.
The sentencing highlights ongoing efforts by law enforcement to address scams targeting older adults, who are often vulnerable to financial fraud. The case involved five individuals—Singh, Dariona Lambert, Zhamoniq Stevens, Chintankumar Parekh, and Mehulkumar Darji—who all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
According to court documents, overseas scammers contacted elderly people through phone calls and electronic messages, falsely claiming their savings and retirement accounts had been compromised. Victims were told they needed to transfer funds for security reasons, often by purchasing gold bars or coins. The government estimates that these scammers obtained $9.3 million from their victims.
One victim was an 82-year-old woman from St. Louis who was convinced by someone posing as a computer software support representative that her accounts were at risk. She was instructed to buy about $250,000 worth of gold bars and hand them over to a courier sent by the conspirators. Law enforcement intercepted the courier near the victim’s home after she traveled from Florida for the pickup.
The roles of those convicted varied: Lambert and Stevens acted as couriers collecting gold from victims in multiple states; Singh, Parekh, and Darji served as handlers who collected the gold and paid couriers in cash. All received prison sentences ranging from 18 months to four years and were ordered to pay restitution. Parekh and Darji will be deported after serving their sentences due to immigration violations.
Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker of the FBI St. Louis Division said: “Sital Singh and his co-conspirators in the U.S. and overseas are parasites. Their crimes devastated their elderly victims by robbing them of their life savings. In one example, an elderly couple in their 90s lost all the money they had saved to ensure their disabled adult child would be taken care of for life.” Crocker added that the FBI will continue working with international partners “to go after the ringleaders overseas.” The investigation was conducted by the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations.
