LANCASTER – A New York man was sentenced to six to 23 months in jail after stealing more than half a million dollars’ worth of gold bars from an Ephrata woman by impersonating a federal employee. 45-year-old Zhong Ren of Brooklyn pleaded guilty to theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, impersonating a public servant, and other charges. Ren faces deportation as a result of the conviction. He conspired with others to steal the gold bars from the victim’s home in the 200 block of Linda Terrace in April 2025. The victim had been tricked by Ren and other unidentified co-defendants, who claimed they were federal employees, that she was the target of a foreign hacking scheme into her bank account and that she needed to convert all of her investments into gold which they would then hold in a Federal Reserve vault in Philadelphia until her fraud claim was resolved. Maryland State Police arrested Ren in June 2025 after he was identified as taking part in an identical scheme.
ZHONG REN