Earlier this month, the Circa Hotel & Casino in downtown Las Vegas was conned out of $1.17 million by 23-year-old Erik Gutierrez, who allegedly called the casino cage claiming to be the owner of the property and instructed staff to withdraw the funds to pay for fire safety equipment.
Per police records, Gutierrez managed to persuade the cage supervisor into bringing several lump sums of cash to off-site locations through calls and texts that were traced back to Mexican phone numbers.
Now, local and federal authorities—including the U.S. Secret Service—have broadened the investigation to include similar instances at both the Golden Nugget in Laughlin and the Eureka Casino Resort in Mesquite earlier this year, according to local outlet KLAS.
The Eureka incident also involved a cage supervisor transporting cash to a separate location, which in that case was $250,000 for supposed hand sanitizer. That plot, which involved the scammer calling the employee’s personal cell phone, was first reported March 2, but investigators now believe that Gutierrez was in fact behind that hit as well.
Gutierrez now faces two charges of theft of more than $100,000, and KLAS reported that he was being held in Clark County Detention Center on $45,000 bail.
With regard to the Golden Nugget incident, investigators from the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) told KLAS that the investigation is still ongoing and Gutierrez has not been charged but the details surrounding the hits were similar, including the use of Mexican phone numbers.
Authorities eventually apprehended Gutirerrez at a gym June 18. After identifying the vehicle used in the Circa heist, police traced its ownership to Gutierrez’s aunt, whom he was living with.
After searching the home June 21, some $850,000 was recovered, leaving over $300,000 still unaccounted for. Police records also noted that Gutierrez was seen getting into a car with another individual at one point but no other arrests have been made.
Another interesting detail about the Eureka heist in particular was that the cage supervisor was instructed to deposit the money in various Bitcoin ATMs around town in increments of $15,000. However, after the second machine the employee approached was defective, Gutierrez apparently changed his mind and simply met the employee in a parking lot and took the remaining $235,000 in cash.
According to KLAS, investigators have tracked the $15,000 that was successfully deposited to 17 different accounts, including accounts based all the way in Gibraltar.
