Casino Counterfeiter at Circa Admits to $1.1M Robbery
A man who allegedly stole over $1 million from Circa Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas under the false pretense of being one of its owners pleaded guilty to a single count of theft exceeding $100,000.
Erik Gutierrez Martinez, 24, was detained on June 18, a day after the robbery. Authorities discovered cash from the Circa heist at his residence.
In addition to the Circa case, he was charged with a similar crime at the Eureka Casino Resort in Mesquite, Nevada, and is a suspect in a third at the Golden Nugget in Laughlin, Nevada.
As part of the settlement agreement, Gutierrez Martinez confirms guilt only for the Circa incident. He also accepts that he will face a prison sentence of between one and ten years.
The Imposter Speaks
On June 17, a cage supervisor from Circa received a phone call from someone claiming to be one of the casino's owners. Circa is owned by brothers Derek and Greg Stevens.
The impostor stated that immediate payments needed to be made to the Fire Department for testing their fire extinguishers. Further payments would be necessary to purchase additional fire safety equipment, the caller claimed.
If the funds were not delivered, city officials could potentially order a temporary shutdown of the casino, costing the operator millions, the imposter threatened.
The case supervisor delivered the money in four instalments worth $1.17 million to two men at four different locations. The entire time she believed she was speaking with the owner and communicating with her manager, police stated.
Investigators tracked a car involved in the theft to Gutierrez Martinez's aunt's home, resulting in his arrest.
No additional arrests have been made in relation to the scheme, which appears to involve multiple individuals, and $314,000 from the Circa theft is still missing.
Eureka!
At around 1:30 a.m. on March 2, an individual called "Michael Gunther" rang the Eureka casino cage from a Mexican phone number, claiming a lost check. "Gunther" stated that the cage supervisor would find a check made out to his company in the safe.
When no such check was found, the caller ordered $250,000 to be sent to a Las Vegas address immediately. When the supervisor arrived at the location, she discovered it was a Circle K convenience store.
"Gunther" instructed the supervisor to deposit $15,000 into a Bitcoin Depot kiosk. He then told her to meet someone named "Anthony" at a 7-Eleven to receive the remaining $235,000. After giving over the money, the supervisor got a call from the casino, found out something was amiss, and managed to reclaim her cash.
Investigators now believe that "Anthony" was Gutierrez Martinez.
The $15,000 transferred into Bitcoin was sent to 17 different accounts, including some in Gibraltar, an offshore tax haven in the Mediterranean, according to court documents.
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Source: www.casino.org
