Biao Lin, accused in federal court of stealing more than $3 million in gold bullion from an unsuspecting elderly couple in Portland, is now suspected of taking more than $8 million in gold bullion from at least two others on the East Coast and in Idaho. , a prosecutor said this week.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Kerin unveiled the new charges as he asked a federal judge to order Lin held pending trial.

Defense attorney Shanon L. Gray downplayed Lin’s role, calling him only a “courier.” Gray asked the judge to release Lin to a halfway house in Portland and then allow him to return to Brooklyn, where he could be supervised by federal probation officers.

“There is no evidence that he personally defrauded anyone,” Gray said.

Lin, a 27-year-old Chinese national, was arrested last month in Portland, accused of traveling across the country in a criminal conspiracy to pick up gold bullion from an unsuspecting local couple, an 86-year-old woman and her husband. 93.

He was arrested by the FBI while he was about to pick up more than $400.00 in gold bullion from them, according to court records.

The couple attended Lin’s detention hearing Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Armistead in federal court in Portland. Lin listened to the proceedings with the help of a Mandarin interpreter.

FBI investigations uncovered similar cases across the country involving elderly people that led to the arrest two other people from Oregon at the beginning of this year.

Investigators say hackers break into people’s computers and then claim to be government officials trying to help scam victims protect their assets. They get people to convert the money into gold to be kept by the US Treasury and then send couriers to pick up the gold bars.

While Lin’s alleged role was as a courier in the conspiracy scheme, picking up and dropping off gold bars from the intended victims, he is “still a pivot in the organization to go get the money and gold,” Kerin told the Lin’s custody hearing.

Armistead considered the matter and ordered Lin to remain in custody pending a decision.

“As the kids say, his behavior is ‘up,'” Armistead said, using slang for the suspect.

He noted that Lin is accused of “direct interaction with the alleged victims.”

Since Lin’s arrest in the Portland case, he has been identified as a suspect in four other thefts of gold bars from a person in the New York-New Jersey metro area, Kerin said.

A man matching Lin’s description in a car registered to Lin made the pickups from the East Coast victim, with a total loss of about $585,000, he said.

Based on a preliminary analysis of one of Lin’s cellphones, investigators now suspect Lin flew from Atlanta to Spokane on Oct. 3, rented a car and took gold bars from a person in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, before returning to the Spokane Airport to make a FedEx shipment and then drive south to Portland, Kerin said.

Investigators found a suspected victim’s address in Coeur d’Alene and a “password” to use for that pickup on Lin’s phone and evidence of the subsequent FedEx shipment, Kerin said.

Investigators planned to contact the person in Idaho this week and are working to identify the masterminds of the alleged scheme, Kerin said.

He argued against Lin’s release, saying Lin entered the United States illegally in 2019, did not apply for asylum until 2020, and could easily flee back to his homeland to avoid prosecution because the United States does not have a extradition treaty with China.

Gray, Lin’s lawyer, said his client would surrender his Chinese passport to surveillance officers before the trial.

Kerin replied that Lin could obtain a new passport by crossing the US border into Canada or Mexico and then claiming that his passport was stolen. The judge called this presumption.

Gray said Lin worked as a chef at a sushi restaurant and lives with a relative in Brooklyn.

Lin is being held at the federal detention center in Sheridan and cannot communicate with anyone there because he does not speak English, Gray said.

If Armistead were to grant Lin pretrial release, the government asked that his order be stayed pending review by a federal district judge. As of Friday, Armistead had not issued a new ruling.

— Maxine Bernstein covers federal courts and criminal justice. Contact her at 503-221-8212, [email protected], follow her on X @maxoregonianor on LinkedIn.

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