(WWJ) — A man from Mexico has been charged with stealing $700,000 in cash from a West Michigan casino.
Jesus Gaytan-Garcia was charged in a criminal complaint with stealing the money from the Hartford location of the Four Winds Casino, about 35 miles west of Kalamazoo. The casino is owned and operated by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians.
U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten says the amount of money Gaytan-Garcia allegedly stole is “extraordinary.”
The criminal complaint alleges that a call came into the casino on July 30, 2023 and the caller “falsely claimed that he was the tribal chairperson and needed funds to make an urgent payment,” according to Totten’s office.
A supervisory employee at the casino, apparently “duped by the caller’s fraudulent claims,” gathered up $700,000 in cash and walked out of the casino.
At the caller’s direction, the employee took the cash to a gas station in Gary, Indiana, about 80 miles away. Authorities say the employee then handed the cash over to two unknown people.
After a months-long investigation, the FBI and Pokagon Tribal Police were able to identify Gaytan-Garcia as one of the individuals the Casino employee met at the gas station.
Investigators searched Gaytan-Garcia’s home and found a bundle of cash, which Totten says was “still wrapped in a paper band which was stamped with the word ‘Hartford,’ the location of the victimized Four Winds Casino, and the exact date of the theft, July 30, 2023”
Gaytan-Garcia was arrested four days later.
“Unfortunately, instances of telephone scams at casinos are on the rise across the country, impacting both tribal and commercial gaming operations,” Totten said, per a press release. “Thanks to the dedicated, joint investigation of Pokagon Tribal Police and the FBI, we were able to identify and arrest one of the perpetrators of this scheme that targeted the Hartford Four Winds Casino.”
The case was investigated by the Pokagon Band Tribal Police and the FBI.