Some of the fake gold seized by Bend Police. (Submitted photo./Bend Police)

Prosecutors are working to uncover the breadth of a fake gold bar scam allegedly carried out by two Bend teenagers, which investigators say included selling fake Rolex watches on eBay.

Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel is asking for all victims of the scam to come forward.

“Right now I am doing a big push to identify every victim and total the financial damages,” he said.

Robert Yelas Jr. and Caleb Knight, both 17, were arrested March 21 after police say they made nearly $60,000 from selling fraudulent 1-ounce gold bars. Yelas allegedly purchased the bars from online retailer aliexpress.com, a Chinese e-commerce site, and sold them to locals on craigslist.org. When confronted by the Bend Police Department, Yelas confessed to orchestrating and profiting from the scheme and using Knight as a middleman to not get caught, court documents show.

While the gold bar scam claimed several victims, no one was more affected than Bill Fleming, of Bend, who is out $44,500. Fleming, who owns a coin shop, never actually purchased the bars from Yelas or Knight, but rather bought them from Craig Boatman, a Bend customer with whom he had done business for many years.

Fleming said he purchased a total of 35 of the fake bars from Boatman, who had purchased them from Knight. Both transactions were set up by Yelas. By the time Fleming realized they were copper and plated with about $1 worth of gold, he had already sold a total of 20 to three customers.

Fleming said he was relieved when he found out Bend Police Detective Josh Spano had made arrests in the case.

“I’ve lost quite a bit of sleep not knowing at first, when we didn’t know if this was a deal where someone was out of town and they were in town just long enough to pull a scam,” he said.

Fleming said he contacted the buyers and traded the fake gold for real gold. He then gave the fake bars to police. One customer, Fleming said, had already sold two of the bars and was not able to track them down.

While Fleming made things right with his customers, he is still out a substantial amount of money. Fleming said Boatman made it clear to Fleming he will not take on a share of the loss and has since stopped talking to Fleming.

“I don’t know how he sleeps at night,” Fleming said.

Court documents show Boatman told police he did not know the bars were fake. He told them he understood Fleming was a victim to the crime but said he himself was a victim, too. He said he had spent some of the money he made on the transaction with Fleming, and wasn’t sure what to do. Attempts to reach Boatman for comment were unsuccessful.

Given the age of the suspects, Fleming is worried about when he will get restitution. By the time Yelas was questioned by Spano, he had spent a good chunk of the money on vehicles, including a Mercedes-Benz he purchased from his mother for $8,000.

Fleming said he would favor a lighter sentence including community service so Yelas and Knight could earn a living and begin paying back what they allegedly stole.

Yelas and Knight were initially arrested on suspicion of aggravated first-degree theft by deception, first-degree theft by deception, felony computer crime, felony criminal conspiracy and money laundering. They were charged as juveniles. Hummel said he is considering whether to charge them as adults and expects to come to a decision within the next two weeks.

Part of that process will be determining how big the scam actually was. Hummel said the investigation turned up information about the Rolexes. According to a probable cause affidavit filed in March, a search of the Yelas household turned up three watches branded as being Rolex watches. Hummel declined to comment on how many fake watches he believes Yelas was selling, though he did say they were being sold on eBay.com. Hummel declined to say whether Knight was involved in selling the watches.

Looking back, Fleming said he wishes he would have paid more attention to the thickness of the bars, which he said later inspection revealed was off. He is also baffled the teens were allegedly able to pull off such large transactions with strangers through Craigslist.

“I can’t even picture myself sitting down at the Starbucks and having some kid hand me $22,000 for a transaction,” Fleming said. “That’s about as goofy to me as having a mother sell her kid an $8,000 car.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0376, awieber@bendbulletin.com

Given the age of the suspects, Fleming is worried about when he will get restitution.