Alaska Attorney General Settles With Ketchikan Jeweler Over Fake Gold Claims

The gold nuggets looked convincing. Set in rings and displayed in storefronts directly across from Ketchikan's cruise ship docks, they carried the full weight of Alaska's mining mythology. Salespeople at Soni Inc. told investigators the nuggets were remarkably pure 24-karat gold, mined from Alaskan ground. Lab tests told a different story: the nuggets were 14-karat imitations, machine-shaped to mimic the organic irregularity of natural gold. The quartz pieces veined with what appeared to be gold were, in some cases, barely gold at all — low-purity alloys of roughly half gold, or in at least one instance, containing no gold whatsoever.

Alaska Attorney General Stephen Cox announced on March 19, 2026, that the state had settled its consumer-protection lawsuit against Soni Inc. and one of its corporate officers, Sunita Lakhwani. The settlement requires the defendants to pay $60,000 in disgorgement to the state and restitution to four individuals the investigation identified as victims. State investigators are now empowered to conduct on-the-spot audits to verify any future claims Soni Inc. makes about whether its products are made in Alaska, are "Alaskan," or whether its gold quartz and gold nuggets are natural.

The case began with undercover purchases in 2023. In mid-September of that year, an undercover investigator bought what salespeople described as a gold quartz ring with quartz mined in Alaska. "We determined that we believed it was imitation, and we applied to the superior court in Ketchikan for an impound order," said Assistant Attorney General Ian Engelbeck. That order allowed authorities to confiscate 10 pieces of jewelry from each storefront. Subsequent laboratory testing confirmed the fraud.

Soni Inc. operates in Ketchikan under multiple names, including Flawless Fine Jewelry, Soni Jewelers, and Colors Fine Jewelry, as well as an outlet inside Tongass Trading Company. The stores sit in the heart of downtown Ketchikan, catering primarily to cruise ship passengers during the tourism season. The supply chain behind the "Alaska gold" turned out to run through California: investigators traced the merchandise to TT Jewelry, a California-based supplier. Salespeople had told undercover investigators not only that the jewelry contained 24-karat gold mined in Alaska and was made by local Ketchikan jewelers, but also that natural gold quartz occurs exclusively in Alaska and can only be legally purchased there — a claim the state's complaint characterized as false.

"Alaska is known around the world for its gold — our mines, our mineral deposits, the history behind them," Cox said in the settlement announcement. "When a business tells visitors that gold was mined here, people believe it. If that's not true, it's taking advantage of visitors — and trading on Alaska's name in the process."

The case arrives as Alaska's Department of Law is building out its consumer-protection capacity. The Alaska Legislature has approved a budget line-item increase of nearly $600,000 to fund three new positions in the consumer protection section: a prosecutor, an investigator, and a paralegal, all based in Anchorage. The additions, requested by Governor Mike Dunleavy, are awaiting his signature. Sam Curtis, an information officer with the Department of Law, said the office expects more consumer-protection actions in the years ahead.

For anyone who has ever stood at a jewelry counter in a port town and taken a salesperson's provenance claims on faith, this case is a precise illustration of why karat stamps, sourcing disclosures, and independent verification matter. The difference between a 24-karat nugget mined in Alaska and a 14-karat casting ordered from a California catalog is not merely semantic. It is the difference between a genuine keepsake and an expensive piece of theater.