Tilak Jewelers in Irving and Saima Jewelers in Frisco are at the center of a gold laundering scam. On Thursday, millions of dollars in cash and gold was seized from these two stores, while three people have been arrested.
At a moment when anti-Indian sentiment is running high amid H-1B-related investigations —most notably in Texas — news of another crime involving Indian-owned stores from the state is especially disheartening for the community.
In the cities of Frisco and Irving in Texas, a police raid at two Indian jewelry stores uncovered a $55 million scam.
According to CBS News Texas, that had an exclusive access to the raids that occurred on Thursday, millions of dollars in cash and gold was seized from Tilak Jewelers in Irving and Saima Jewelers in Frisco.
The two jewelry store owners are accused of gold laundering. As per CBS News Texas, the raids were a result of a year-long investigation by the Collin County Sheriff’s Office and federal authorities.
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The jewelry store owners are accused of gold laundering. The scam reportedly involved a long modus operandi where emails were sent to elderly victims alerting them that their names have been associated with committing criminal acts. The emails would threaten them with arrests if they did not buy gold and hand it over to couriers. As per authorities these stores would then buy some of that gold from the couriers. And then would melt it down into jewelry, mainly bracelets. Everyone involved in this “gold bar scam” got a cut.
These items were then sold to customers, who were totally unaware of this or the pieces were smuggled out of the country.
READ: Gang targeting Indian jewelry stores across East Coast busted (September 4, 2026)
Thursday noon saw dozens of officers from the Collin County Sheriff’s Office, as well federal, state and local police, conducting tactical raids on the two stores.
Collin County Sheriff Jim Skinner, said: “You call Collin County and you go to defraud our citizens, we’re going to come get you, that’s just the bottom line.”
During the one-yearlong investigation, a task force was set up by Collin County Sheriff’s Office. Suspected couriers from around Dallas-Fort Worth area began getting arrested by the task force. It is being reported that around 200 seniors from Collin County were victims of this scam and over $7 million has been stolen from the retirement savings of these unsuspecting elderly residents. All the victims are the age of 65. Two people were arrested at the Irving store and another person was arrested at the Frisco store.