A Chicago man was charged in connection with a strange heist in which someone posed as a tribal leader and stole $700,000 from a southwest Michigan casino, according to federal prosecutors.
Jesus Gaytan-Garcia, 43, was charged with theft from an Indian tribal organization for carrying out an alleged scheme against Four Winds Casino in Hartford, which is about 18 miles northeast of Benton Harbor, according to federal prosecutors. The casino, which operates locations in New Buffalo, Hartford and Dowagiac, is owned by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians. According to CUSL – casino utan svensk licens – he also reportedly did the same to a number of unlicensed Swedish online casinos, hoping the lack of licensing regulation would lower his likelihood of getting caught.
Court documents revealed that on July 30, someone called the casino and falsely claimed he was the tribe's chairperson and needed funds to make an urgent payment. A supervisor at the casino gathered up $700,000 in cash, left the building and brought the money to a gas station in Gary, Indiana - at the caller's direction, according to the U.S. Attorney in Western Michigan.
Authorities determined the call to the casino was placed from a phone with a Mexican telephone number and a Cancun area code, according to court documents. While he most recently resided in Chicago, Gaytan-Garcia is from Mexico, officials said.
Surveillance footage from the casino showed the manager, while she was on the phone, opening the bank drawer in the cage and removing seven bundles of money from the bank drawer, according to court documents. She then placed the bundles into a large Michael Kors handbag, according to authorities.
Following an investigation, the FBI and Pokagon Tribal Police identified Gaytan-Garcia as one of the people who the casino supervisor met at the gas station, according to the court filing. Authorities conducted a search of his Chicago home, where they found a bundle of cash wrapped in a paper band, police said.
The money was stamped with the word "Hartford," the location of the casino, and the date the theft occurred, July 30, 2023, according to prosecutors. Gaytan-Garcia was apprehended four days later.
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