Police on Thursday arrested a Florida man accused of helping to steal more than $200,000 in cash and gold from a State College couple in an elaborate scam targeting older residents.
Kevin Gan, 24, who police said also resides in New York, was denied bail by District Judge Gregory Koehle after he was taken into custody by undercover officers in a State College shopping center parking lot.
The couple told borough police that on June 2, a pop-up appeared on their computer stating that the they were victims of a breach and provided a contact phone number purporting to be for Microsoft. When the wife called the number, a man told her that a bank account in her name and that of someone with same last name was opened in 2025 and “was transferring large sums of money to support child pornography,” police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
She was then transferred to what the man claimed was the bank and spoke with another man who said the account had been used to send more than $600,000 “to support child pornography,” according to the affidavit. She was then transferred to someone identifying himself as “Edward Marshall” and claiming to be in the U.S. Treasury Department.
Marshall told the woman that she had broken several laws and “threatened to take away her Social Security number as well as applying other penalties,” police wrote. He said that her accounts would be frozen and she needed to send her funds to him for safekeeping and to avoid punishment, according to the affidavit.
The woman mentioned that she had a joint account with her husband and that he had a gold coin collection. Marshall told her to send pictures of the collection, which she did, then directed her to package the coins and have her husband take them outside to be collected by an “agent.”
The husband was given a password and provided the coin collection, which was valued at $97,000, to a man who arrived while he was on the phone with Marshall, according to the affidavit.
Over the next several weeks, Marshall contacted the couple almost daily, mostly by text message, and directed them to make multiple cash withdrawals of about $30,000 each time that the husband then delivered to a man in various parking lots in State College, police wrote. In one instance, the husband was also told to purchase $22,000 in gold coins that he also delivered along with cash.
The couple had lost $235,000 by July 13, when Marshall contacted them about making one final $30,000 transfer. Reluctant to do so because it was all they had left and worried they were being scammed, they contacted State College police.
Working with the Department of Homeland Security, police told them to move forward with setting up the exchange so that officers could conduct a sting. On July 15, they agreed to deliver the $30,000 to the Weis Markets parking lot on Westerly Parkway, where a team of undercover officers would be stationed, but received another phone call from the scammer telling them the exchange had to be delayed to the next day, according to the affidavit.
On July 16, the husband went to the supermarket parking lot, and was then told by the scammer to go to the Hamilton Square parking lot. He alerted police, who moved their surveillance to the West Hamilton Avenue shopping center.
Police observed a man, later identified as Gan, walk up to the husband’s car and take a box containing bait money, according to the affidavit. Officers took Gan into custody and found he was in possession of a cell phone used to communicate with a man he called “Mark,” who he said asked him to go to State College to pick up a package containing $30,000, police wrote.
Gan told investigators that he knew Mark, believed to be “Edward Marshall,” was in contact with the couple by text and phone calls and that he had given him a code name to provide to the husband when picking up the package, according to the affidavit.
He added that Mark told him to look around for undercover officers when he arrived at the pick-up point, police wrote.
Borough police said in a statement the case remains under investigation, and additional arrests may follow.
Gan is charged with felony counts of theft by deception and receiving stolen property. He is detained at the Centre County Correctional Facility.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 29.
“The SCPD reminds the public that legitimate government agencies, financial institutions, and technology companies will never demand cash, instruct individuals to transfer money to protect their assets, or threaten arrest over the phone,” police wrote in a statement. “Anyone receiving similar communications should immediately terminate the conversation and contact their local law enforcement agency.”
