Published on: September 23, 2025, 06:55h.
Updated on: September 23, 2025, 06:55h.
- Omaha Duo Sentenced Following Bold $350,000 Grand River Casino Heist
- Impersonation of an Official Led to Cash Fraud
- Mastermind Behind Multi-Casino Scams Still Evades Capture
Last week, two men from Omaha, Nebraska, who participated in an audacious theft of over $350,000 from the Grand River Casino were sentenced to prison, while the mastermind behind the operation remains elusive.
On February 25, 2024, at approximately 6 a.m., employees of the Mobridge, S.D. casino received a phone call from an individual impersonating a federal official. The caller falsely claimed that the casino owed more than $700,000 in fees and would face hefty fines if payment wasn’t made immediately.
Following the caller’s instructions, an employee gathered the cash from the casino’s cash cage and delivered it to two men at a gas station in Mitchell, S.D., which is over three hours away.
Mules for Money
The two men involved were identified as Roberto Carlos Gonzalez Miranda, 24, and Roberto Orellana, 46. After pleading guilty to transporting stolen funds across state lines, Gonzalez was sentenced to five years and ten months in federal prison, while Orellana received a sentence of four years and two months. They were also mandated to pay restitution to the casino’s owner, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
As per a press release from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of South Dakota, neither Miranda nor Orellana orchestrated the phone call. Instead, they occasionally worked as money mules for a “transnational criminal organization,” which dispatched them to collect the money. The caller’s identity remains a mystery, and the stolen funds have yet to be recovered.
This incident is one of several similar cases involving casino employees being deceived into relinquishing money.
Quest for the Mastermind
In July 2023, a call was made to a cash cage supervisor at the Four Winds Hartford Casino in Michigan from someone pretending to be the chairperson of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, the casino’s owners.
Under false pretenses, the employee was instructed to transfer $700,000 in cash to a gas station in Gary, Indiana. An undocumented immigrant, Jesus Gaytan-Garcia, 43, was subsequently charged for receiving the stolen cash.
Earlier in June 2023, another cage supervisor at Circa in downtown Las Vegas received a call from someone claiming to be either Derek or Greg Stevens, one of the casino’s owners.
The imposter stated that emergency payments were required for the Fire Department to conduct inspections on the casino’s fire extinguishers, with additional costs for new fire safety equipment. He warned that failure to comply could lead to a temporary shutdown ordered by city officials, potentially resulting in millions in losses for Circa.
Following the incident, Erik Gutierrez Martinez, 24, was apprehended and sentenced to one year in prison after admitting guilt on theft charges. Prosecutors suggested he was part of a larger criminal network suspected of executing similar heists at the Eureka Casino Resort in Mesquite, Nevada, and the Golden Nugget in Laughlin, Nevada. No additional charges have been brought against other individuals in connection with these crimes.