Serving the Time

Precious metals dealer Robert L. Higgins was sentenced to 65 years in federal prison on June 17. The sentencing comes after an eight-day trial where he was convicted of mail and wire fraud and income tax evasion. In addition to his 65-year sentence, the court ordered Higgins to pay $76.5 million in reparations to the fraud victims. 

His company, First State Depository in Wilmington, Delaware, stored over $100 million in client-held gold, silver, and coins. Over the course of 10 years, Higgins stole at least $76 million in metals, affecting over 1,000 customer accounts. He also underreported his income on federal tax filings, while using the stolen funds to buy Hawaiian timeshares, foreign vacations, high-end products, and more. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division collaborated to build the case against him, and prosecutors argued that his sizable sentence reflects the immense damage he caused to the victims’ savings and Higgins’s repeated and deliberate dishonesty.

The sentencing judge, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, considers the fraud to be one of the largest in the U.S. precious metals industry. In response to the trial and sentencing, FBI Baltimore Acting Special Agent in Charge Amanda Koldjeski remarked, “The more his greed grew, so did his shameful and selfish scheme. 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.”