Investigative work by a detective of the Saginaw Chippewa tribe and other officers investigating credit card scams at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in Mountain Pleasant, Michigan uncovered thousands of dollars in card fraud and sent one man to jail last week in Isabella County.
Evidence was found in a video of security footage viewed by the tribal officer. It showed two men going from kiosk to kiosk on the casino floor attempting to withdraw funds.
The investigation uncovered a series of fraudulent charges of various amounts from July 15 to August 13. Up to nine victims were identified.
The officer contacted the Huron Potawatomi Tribal Police Department and discovered that similar card fraud was occurring at the Firekeepers Casino in Battle Creek, 120 miles away.
Officers then discovered similar scamming transactions happening in Lansing, which lies between the two casinos.
The FBI was brought into the investigation and eventually uncovered that nearly $50,000 had been taken from 70 fraudulent scammers, involving a total of four perpetrators and three laptops, along with 100 gift cards that are suspected of having been cloned.
One man has been arraigned: Barbarito Delgado Ramos, 51, and held on $150,000 bail.
