Jury convicts man in bold scheme to steal $700,000 from Michigan casino

DETROIT– A Chicago man has been convicted of stealing $700,000 from a Michigan casino, a brazen scheme that involved tricking an employee over the phone into putting the money in a designer bag and driving 85 miles to deliver it.

“This case underscores the need for businesses, organizations and citizens to be diligent and cautious about phone and internet scams,” said U.S. Attorney Mark Totten.

The crime occurred in 2023 at the Four Winds Casino in Hartford in southwestern Michigan, which is operated by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians. The FBI said a key cash handling employee received a phone call and text messages ordering her to immediately raise $700,000 for a tribal official.

No one stopped the employee as she filled a Michael Kors bag with bundles of cash, walked out of the casino and drove away.

She stayed on the phone with the caller, who eventually told her to go to a gas station in Gary, Indiana. That’s when she passed the money to Jesus Gaytan-Garcia, one of two men in a minivan who met her, investigators said.

“She cooperated with investigators and told them about the phone call, text messages and money transfer at the gas station,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Lane said in a court filing.

Gaytan-Garcia was not arrested until March 2024, seven months later, after investigators were able to link him to the vehicle used to collect the money.

He was convicted of two charges Thursday in federal court in Kalamazoo, Michigan. His lawyer could not immediately comment Friday.

Investigators said they recovered $18,000 from a safe in Gaytan-Garcia’s Chicago home. The money was wrapped and marked with the date of the casino theft.

Searches of Gaytan-Garcia’s Indiana trailers turned up evidence of money transfers, antique coins, Civil War currency and foreign currency, Lane said.