The owners of several downtown Los Angeles precious metals businesses pleaded guilty to charges tied to hiding cash transactions, failing to run an anti-money laundering program, falsifying tax returns, and spending unreported cash at other businesses and a casino.

The husband-and-wife team who ran shops in the Los Angeles Jewelry District admitted in court that they concealed millions in customer cash from federal authorities and repeatedly skirted reporting rules that trigger IRS oversight. Prosecutors say the scheme stretched over years and moved large sums of physical cash through family companies without the required paperwork. The case highlights how simple record-keeping rules can be ignored when cash becomes the default operating currency.

• Alex Nguyen, 50, of Irvine, who also pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false tax return;
• Sam Nguyen, 52, also of Irvine, who is Alex Nguyen’s wife; and
• Newport Gold Post Inc., one of the companies they own.

According to plea agreements, the Nguyens owned several related businesses from May 2013 to March 2022, including Newport Gold Post, Goldtech Assay Laboratory LLC doing business as Infinity, Sam Bullion and Coin, and AAPS Bullion. Those shops bought and sold precious metals and routinely took in large amounts of cash, which by law should have triggered Form 8300 filings for transactions over $10,000. Prosecutors say the couple knowingly failed to file those reports over and over.

Federal records walk through specific deals to show how the scheme worked. In one February 2020 sale, a buyer purchased 643 ounces of silver for about $11,766 and asked for a receipt, but Alex Nguyen answered, “Not for cash,” and did not request identification. That interaction is an early example of the operators refusing both documentation and the basic customer information required when large cash payments are involved.

The pattern escalated that year when the same buyer returned several times and in December 2020 arrived with a suitcase containing $140,000 in cash, half wrapped in heat-sealed packages. Alex Nguyen took the cash and supplied 5,118 ounces of silver, and during those four transactions prosecutors say he intentionally failed to file a single Form 8300. Those episodes are used in court papers to show conscious avoidance of reporting rules, not clerical error.

Investigators allege Alex routinely handled vast amounts of cash, receiving between $200,000 and $1 million per day at times from customers across the Jewelry District. He is accused of using that cash to buy more precious metals from other dealers while agreeing with some operators not to complete or file Form 8300s. The paper trail prosecutors describe shows coordination to keep large cash flows off federal radar.

When the total scope is tallied, the government says the defendants failed to file accurate or complete Form 8300s on more than 350 occasions, covering at least $127 million in cash delivered to Nguyen family businesses. Sam Nguyen admitted in her plea to skipping the required filing for several transactions, including a July 2021 sale of 50 one-ounce gold bars for $100,000 that came in shrink-wrapped cash. She told that buyer she preferred shrink-wrapped cash “because sometimes she received cash that had been buried underground.”

The pair also admitted they did not put in place the anti-money laundering program federal law requires for this kind of business, even after IRS auditors repeatedly told them to do so. Prosecutors say both lied to auditors and investigators about their cash practices; in court filings, Alex Nguyen falsely said he did not accept cash payments and had not done so since the 1980s, and Sam Nguyen similarly told auditors and federal agents she did not accept cash payments.

Tax filings are part of the case as well. From 2016 through 2020, Alex Nguyen is accused of willfully filing false joint returns that omitted business income, with court documents showing he failed to report $1,535,330 in 2019 alone. The couple also converted business cash at a casino and later deposited casino checks totaling $1,048,450 into their bank accounts for personal use, producing a multi-year tax shortfall estimated between $1.7 million and $1.8 million.

Sentencing is set before United States District Judge Michelle Williams Court on June 5, 2026. If the guidelines stick, Alex Nguyen could face up to eight years in federal prison, Sam Nguyen up to five years, and Newport Gold Post faces a statutory maximum of five years of probation and a $500,000 fine. The matter remains under investigation by IRS Criminal Investigation and the FBI, and the case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Chelsea Norell of the Major Crimes Section.