A Las Vegas man is facing several charges after he allegedly conned employees at the Circa Hotel & Casino in downtown Las Vegas into giving him over $1 million by posing as the owner of the property and demanding funds for fire safety equipment, according to local authorities.
23-year-old Erik Gutierrez was arrested June 18, with bail set at $25,000, per court filings.
According to local outlet KLAS, Las Vegas Metro Police first responded to the casino on June 17, after receiving a tip from the security office that an “unknown person” had called the casino cage claiming to be the owner of the property and requested an emergency transfer of $320,000 for the city’s fire department, which “would need a payment for further safety devices.”
The filings said that the cage supervisor then distributed funds to the caller in four installments at various off-property locations. Police said that Circa’s total loss was $1.17 million, with chunk payments of $500,000, $350,000, $314,000 and a series of smaller deposits. When questioned by authorities, the employee indicated that she believed she was in fact in communication with both the attorney and owner of the property.
The vehicle used in the heist was eventually identified and found to belong to Gutierrez’s aunt, who he was reportedly living with. After obtaining a search warrant for the home, police discovered a large amount of cash in a bundle with “Circa” written on it as well as other items implicating the suspect.
In all, only $850,000 was recovered, with the remaining $314,000 still unaccounted for.
In the course of surveilling the house, authorities spotted Gutierrez get into a car with another man, but no other arrests have yet been made.
Derek Stevens, CEO of Circa, said in a statement that the casino “is cooperating with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in this investigation. We greatly appreciate their efforts to date and cannot comment further due to an ongoing investigation.”
According to KLAS, Gutierrez is also facing a similar charge in Mesquite, with a judge there setting a $20,000 bail.
