Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin P. Holihan has announced a New Jersey man has been sentenced to state prison for the theft stealing more than $500,000 in gold and approximately $91,000 in cash from a 74-year-old Whitehall Township man.

Hirtik Hemchand Khatri, 25, of Lawrence Township, New Jersey, pleaded guilty Nov. 20, 2025 to felony charges of theft by extortion, theft by unlawful taking – movable property and criminal use of a communication facility.

On Feb. 3, 2025, Whitehall Township Police were contacted by a 74-year-old victim whose name will not be released.

The victim told police 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 the victim’s 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 victim was told that if the payments were not made, he would be arrested and put in jail. This fear caused him to continue to make the payments.

Ultimately, the victim withdrew funds from his IRA and purchased over 200 gold bars worth almost $600,000 which were picked up from the victim by Khatri.

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

Khatri was sentenced to serve 12 months, minus a day, to 36 months in prison for both theft charges as well as two years of probation for Criminal Use of a Communication Facility.

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

This case was investigated by Whitehall Township Police Detective Lindsay Yetter, the Lehigh County Elder Abuse Task Force, Homeland Security Investigations in Allentown and Trenton, Homeland Security Investigation Agent Sean Crawford, Lawrence Township (NJ) Police and was prosecuted by Chief Deputy District Attorney Ramma R. Mineo.