Eight suspects, including four former workers at Miccosukee Resort & Gaming in West Miami-Dade, have been charged with stealing more than $5 million from the gambling venue through an elaborate computer fraud scheme.
Federal prosecutors said Wednesday that the four former workers at the casino allegedly tampered with its gaming machines to steal enormous amounts of money over a four-year period.
A 63-count indictment charges the four former casino workers and their four accomplices with computer fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering. The charges were leveled against the eight defendants after an investigation led by the FBI with the assistance of the Miccosukee Police Department.
Located in Miami-Dade, Miccosukee Resort & Gaming is a tribal gambling venue managed by the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. The property features more than 2,000 gaming machines and a bingo hall.
The four former casino workers and the other four defendants were discovered to have stolen the total amount of $5.3 million between January 2011 and May 2015.
The Scheme
The former workers at the gaming resort allegedly tampered with the machines on the gaming floor to steal large amounts of money. According to federal prosecutors, they generated false “coin-in” amounts to obtain “fraudulent” credit vouchers.
The actual tempering with the machines involved connecting one end of a wire to a particular device in a gaming machine that is designed to recognize coins. The former casino workers then connected the other end of the same wire to another metal surface in the machine that would cause it to generate the false coin-in amounts.
To avoid being caught, the workers conducted a hard reset or RAM clear of the gaming machines. This way they erased the history of the false coin-in amounts from the gaming devices. As mentioned earlier, their scheme resulted in $5.3 million being fraudulently obtained from the casino’s machines.
The Charges
Prosecutors said Wednesday that the workers exchanged the fraudulent credit vouchers for cash at ATM machines on the casino floor or converted some vouchers to cash through cashiers of the casino. The scheme lasted for more than four years.
All four workers and their four accomplices were charged with money laundering as they were discovered to have used the stolen casino funds to buy real estate, vehicles, investment properties, and for college saving plans in Florida.
One of the former casino workers and one of the other defendants had their first appearance before federal court this past Tuesday. They are set for arraignment on August 13. The other six defendants are expected to appear before court for the first time today or at a later stage.
As mentioned earlier, the investigation into the massive theft was led by the FBI with help from the Miccosukee Police Department. The theft of $5.3 million from Miccosukee Resort & Gaming could easily be dubbed one of the largest-scale US casino fraud incidents in history.
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