A New Jersey man was sentenced Friday in Lehigh County Court for stealing more than $500,000 in gold and approximately $91,000 in cash from a 74-year-old man.

District Attorney Gavin P. Holihan announced the sentence for the defendant, Hirtik Hemchand Khatri, 25, of Lawrence Township, New Jersey.

Khatri pleaded guilty on Nov. 20, 2025, to felony charges of theft by extortion, theft by unlawful taking-movable property and criminal use of a communication facility.

At a hearing Friday before Judge Thomas M. Caffrey, Khatri was sentenced to 12 months, minus a day, to 36 months in prison for both theft charges, as well as two years of probation for the criminal use of a communication facility charge.

Khatri was also ordered to pay restitution of $688,372 to the victim.

On Feb. 3, 2025, Whitehall Township Police were contacted by a 74-year-old man who told police that he had been the victim of a lengthy scam that resulted in a huge financial loss.

The fraud began with an email to him about an allegedly fraudulent charge on his PayPal account. He was told he would be responsible for the error and needed to repay PayPal by going to an area gas station with a Bitcoin kiosk to complete the transaction.

The scam continued with numerous calls, each with a variation on the original theme that an error had been made and the victim had to repay the error with cryptocurrency, gold or cash.

The man was told that if the payments were not made, he would be arrested and put in jail. That fear caused him to continue to make the payments. Ultimately, the man withdrew funds from his IRA and purchased over 200 gold bars worth almost $600,000 that were picked up by Khatri.

A license plate reader was able to identify the car that Khatri was driving when he picked up the gold at the man’s home. The man then identified Khatri from a photo lineup.

The case was investigated by Whitehall Township Police Detective Lindsay Yetter; the Lehigh County Elder Abuse Task Force; Homeland Security Investigations in Allentown and Trenton, New Jersey; Homeland Security Investigation Agent Sean Crawford; and Lawrence Township, New Jersey, Police.

People should be suspicious of anyone who calls them by phone and asks for large sums of money in any form.

And anyone who requests or demands large amounts of funds, especially in untraceable methods like cryptocurrency, precious metals, gift cards or cash is almost certainly part of a scam.

People should contact their local law enforcement agency or the Lehigh County Elder Abuse Task Force if they think they are the target of fraud.

The task force can be reached at 610-782-3700.