Sushi chef who flew across country to pick up $8 million in gold bars is sentenced to prison in Portland

A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a 28-year-old sushi chef to time served for his part as a courier in a statewide fraud scheme that netted over $8 million in gold bars from Oregon and Idaho victims.

U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon accepted the negotiated sentence but stated that Bao Lin’s year and four months in custody did not reflect the offense.

However, the prosecutor and Lin’s defense lawyer claimed Lin was a low-level “money mule” who was simply assigned to sites to pick up gold bars from unknowing victims and transport them to organizers, rather than organizing, coordinating, or planning for the organizers.

Lin, a Chinese national, was sentenced after pleading guilty to misprision of felony, which means he was aware of a federal crime and took steps to conceal it, specifically a wire and mail fraud conspiracy, according to Assistant US Attorney Scott Kerin.

In October 2024, the FBI caught him after he showed up at the house of an unsuspecting Portland couple, ages 86 and 93, to pick up more than $400,000 in gold bars.

According to investigators, hackers gained access to the couple’s computer and then purported to be government officials assisting the couple in protecting their assets. They persuaded them to convert money into gold for safekeeping by the US Treasury and then dispatched messengers to collect the gold bars.

“This is a much more serious offense than the recommended sentence warrants,” he told reporters.

Lin, who was working as a chef at a sushi restaurant and living with a relative in Brooklyn, flew from Atlanta to Spokane on Oct. 3, rented a car, and picked up approximately $8.7 million in gold bars from a person in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, before returning to the Spokane airport to make a FedEx shipment and driving to Portland, according to Kerin.

Lin, a Chinese national, was sentenced after pleading guilty to a crime known as misprision of felony, which indicates he was aware of a federal criminal and took measures to hide it, in this case a wire and mail fraud conspiracy, according to Assistant US Attorney Scott Kerin.

In October 2024, the FBI caught him after he showed up at the house of an unsuspecting Portland couple, ages 86 and 93, to pick up more than $400,000 in gold bars.

When Lin arrived at the Portland couple’s home and gave them a password that was supposed to signal them to turn over their about $466,000 worth of gold bars, the FBI swooped in and detained him, according to Kerin.

Kerin thanked the Portland couple for reporting their loss to the FBI, which led to Lin’s arrest.

“This crime is incredibly exploitative and destructive,” the prosecutor added.

However, Kerin claimed Lin was on the “bottom rung of the overarching conspiracy.”

According to defense attorney Justin Rusk, Lin was “not a decision-maker” and never communicated with the victims.

“An opportunity came and was presented to him while he was working in New York,” Rusk told me.

Lin, who told the judge he only went to school until his first year of middle school, apologized to the victims, adding, “I’m really sorry.”

A restitution hearing is scheduled for April 21.

Lin also faces a federal immigration detainer.

While Kerin stated that no one else in this case had been caught in Oregon, FBI investigations have revealed similar frauds targeting the elderly around the country, and at least two other individuals have been charged with fraud in Oregon for essentially identical offenses since 2024.

One of them, Navjot Singh, also pled guilty to misprision of felony for attempting to steal $193,000 worth of gold bars from a West Linn couple. He was punished in September for the 444 days he had already spent in detention.