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Former depository operator gets 65 years, huge fine for biggest gold and silver theft
By Joseph N. DiStefano
Philadelphia Inquirer
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
WILMINGTON, Delaware -- Robert Leroy Higgins, 69, the West Chester, Pennsylvania, gold and silver dealer found guilty by a federal jury of fraud and tax evasion last fall, was sentenced today to 65 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika.
The judge also ordered Higgins to pay $76.5 million in restitution for the precious metals he stole from about 1,000 customers of his defunct Wilmington company, First State Depository, in what prosecutors called "the largest theft from a precious metals depository in the history of the United States."
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It is a long sentence for white-collar fraud. But "the scope and brazenness of these crimes is shocking," the judge told Higgins, minutes after he insisted he had a plan that could have helped get the missing metals back, if only he had not been in federal prison in Philadelphia since his conviction in October.
"Over many years, you lied, over and over and over," depleting mostly elderly savers' retirement funds while "you were living a lavish lifestyle with their money," Noreika told Higgins. ...
... For the remainder of the report:
https://www.inquirer.com/business/robert-leroy-higgins-sentenced-wilmington-depository-20250617.html
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