A 21-year-old Jacksonville man is facing multiple felony charges after investigators accused him of posing as a U.S. Marshal to help drain more than $300,000 in gold from a 75-year-old Tamarac woman. Mohit Mohit was booked into the Bradford County jail on a Broward County warrant, held without bond, as detectives say the victim lost family savings she had built up over roughly 33 years.
According to WPLG Local 10, the Broward Sheriff's Office opened its investigation last month after the Tamarac woman came forward to report she had been defrauded. Detectives say they developed probable cause to arrest Mohit and describe him as an active and willing participant in what they call a large-scale, nationwide organized fraud scheme.
How the Scam Allegedly Unfolded
Investigators say the scheme began with a call from someone claiming to work in Walmart's fraud department, who told the victim a fraudulent $1,400 Apple laptop purchase had been made in her name. She was then transferred to several other people before reaching a man identifying himself as U.S. Marshal Adam Peterson. He allegedly told her a federal arrest warrant had been issued against her and that her identity had been linked to an abandoned vehicle in Texas containing narcotics, cash and evidence of human trafficking.
The callers allegedly gave the victim a choice: hire an attorney for $100,000 or cooperate with what they described as a federal investigation. She was instructed to liquidate her financial assets and convert the money into gold, while the scheme's operators used fake badge numbers, case numbers, phone numbers and fictitious government-employee names to maintain the ruse.
The Gas Station Handoff
Once the gold was purchased, the operation moved to a public handoff, according to BocaNewsNow.com, which cited Broward Sheriff's Office details on the exchange. The victim was told to package the gold, write an account number on the parcel and stay on the phone continuously with the man posing as "Marshal Peterson" until she handed the package to a courier at a gas station using a specific code word.
Detectives say the scheme also relied on a red Honda Accord and a gray Jeep SUV to move between pickups as part of the broader operation.
Arrest and Charges
Mohit, whose birth date is listed as April 21, 2005, was booked into the jail Monday at 11:47 a.m., according to Bradford County Sheriff's Office booking records, which list a home address on Edison Avenue in Jacksonville. He was held with no bond set on the out-of-county warrant from Broward County.
Mohit faces charges including unlawful use of a two-way communications device, scheme to defraud, and grand theft of a person 65 or older. Detectives identified him as the person who allegedly carried out the in-person exchanges with the Tamarac victim.
Legal Exposure Under Florida Law
Because the victim is over 65 and the theft tops $50,000, the grand theft charge is elevated under Florida Statute § 812.0145, which reclassifies such theft as a first-degree felony carrying up to 30 years in prison, mandatory victim restitution and up to 500 hours of community service.
The scheme-to-defraud charge falls under Florida's Communications Fraud Act, F.S. 817.034, which makes systematic fraud schemes worth $50,000 or more a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison and fines as high as $10,000.
Part of a Growing Nationwide Gold Bar Scam Trend
Cases like this fit a pattern federal officials have flagged as a rapidly growing scheme nationwide. In public service announcements issued in 2024 and 2025, the FBI said organized syndicates recruit couriers to collect bullion after telephone scammers groom victims into liquidating their savings. Federal prosecutors nationwide have handed down sentences ranging from 18 months to more than 15 years for gold bar couriers and handlers, depending on their role, including in a case Hoodline tracked involving a $140K bullion trail to Pennsylvania.
The financial toll is mounting quickly. Americans 60 and older reported $7.7 billion in losses to online fraud and imposter schemes in 2025 across more than 201,000 complaints, a 37% jump over the previous year, according to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center. Florida has been especially hard hit, with the FBI's Miami Field Office reporting more than $293 million in elder fraud losses statewide in 2023 alone.
The real damage is likely far larger than official tallies suggest. A July report from the Consumer Federation of America estimated nationwide scam losses reached $148.2 billion in 2025, more than seven times the FBI's reported figure, because most elder fraud victims never come forward, often out of shame or isolation.
How to Spot the Scam
The U.S. Marshals Service stresses that real federal marshals never call the public demanding payment, wire transfers or gift cards, and never instruct anyone to convert savings into precious metals or cryptocurrency to clear an arrest warrant. Law enforcement agencies broadly will not call demanding money or personal banking information, and the public is urged not to hand over such details to unsolicited callers, to verify any request through an organization's official phone number or website, and to report suspicious activity to local authorities.
Broward Sheriff's Office investigators are asking anyone who believes they've been targeted in a similar scheme to contact Detective Steven Lees at 954-720-2225 or the agency's non-emergency line at 954-764-4357. Officials also caution against sending money in response to any unexpected phone call, text message or email.
