Largest precious metals depository theft in history
Following an eight-day jury trial resulting in his conviction on mail fraud, wire fraud, and income tax evasion charges, U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika sentenced Robert L. Higgins this week to the statutory maximum term of 65 years in federal prison.
A jury late year ruled Higgins to be guilty of tax and other charges related to the theft.
Higgins, 69, owned and operated First State Depository, a precious metals depository in Wilmington. The depository is now in receivership.
According to testimony and court documents, First State Depository held over $100 million in customer assets, primarily in gold and silver bars and coins.
Over at least a decade, Higgins misappropriated his customers’ assets to pay his debts and finance his lifestyle including two timeshares in Hawaii and vacations to foreign countries. He did all of this while underreporting his income on his federal income tax returns.
Evidence presented at trial and in sentencing proceedings revealed that Higgins stole at least $76 million from his customers and that over 1,000 customer accounts were missing precious metals. Industry sources have characterized Higgins’ fraudulent scheme as the largest theft from a precious metals depository in U.S. history.
Acting U.S. Attorney Dylan Steinberg stated, “Higgins lied to, cheated, and stole from customers who placed their trust in him and his businesses during a 10-year fraud scheme. He took his customers’ metals without their permission and used them to finance his personal life and keep his scheme going, all while failing to report and pay his fair share of income taxes. By robbing his many victims of their hard-earned life savings and retirement funds, Higgins irreparably hurt hundreds of people and their families. I applaud the FBI and the IRS-Criminal Investigation Division for their hard work to hold Higgins accountable.”
“The more his greed grew, so did his shameful and selfish scheme. This sentence reflects how egregious Higgins’ crimes truly are. Let this be a lesson to other criminals that the FBI and our partners will not tolerate corruption or those seeking to take advantage of hardworking Americans,” said FBI Baltimore Acting Special Agent in Charge Amanda Koldjeski.
This case was investigated by the FBI and IRS-Criminal Investigation.
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