Prosecutors in Black Hawk, Colo. have dismissed charges against Sabrina Eddy, a cage employee at the Monarch Casino who had been charged with theft when she removed $500,000 from the cage and delivered it to a parking lot off the property.
A judge held that Eddy was an unknowing victim of a scam that has been on the increase, as artificial intelligence technology improves to mimic specific human voices. Eddy thought it was a supervisor who called her around 12:45 a.m. on March 12, 2023 and instructed her to remove $250,000 from the cage and deliver it to a parking lot at the St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood; and subsequently to make a second trip, the cash handed over to a person she thought was associated with the casino.
That person, Juan Gutierrez-Zambrano, pleaded guilty to one felony count and one misdemeanor count of criminal mischief, admitting he was the scammer in this case.
Prosecutors said the investigation found “the defendant believed she was acting under the color of authority and at the direction of a casino supervisor and executive when she removed the money from the casino and delivered it to an individual at the direction of a person now believed to have been a member of the scheme.
“Investigation further revealed that the defendant did not and has not received any financial benefit or windfall as a result of the removal of the money from the casino.”
“This investigation revealed a conspiracy that likely originated outside the United States which sought to compel or trick a casino cage employee into removing money from the premises and delivering it to someone purporting to be associated with the casino,” a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office said in an email to KUSA-TV 9News. “Similar schemes targeting cage employees were perpetrated against casinos across the nation in the summer of 2023.”
Prosecutors said an arrest warrant has been issued for a second suspect in connection with the case. No information was immediately available about that suspect, who prosecutors said “is believed to be outside the United States” in the statement to 9News.
