A Nevada man was arrested earlier this month after allegedly posing as the owner of a downtown Las Vegas hotel and coercing employees to give him over $1 million, according to reports.
FOX 5 in Las Vegas reported the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said an employee at the hotel, which is located on Fremont Street, was contacted by a man claiming to be the owner of the hotel.
The man, who was later identified as 33-year-old Erik Gutierrez-Martinez, told the supervisor of the cashier cage to give him $320,000 to go toward “an emergency payment to the fire department for fire safety devices,” according to the police report.
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Erik Gutierrez-Martinez booking photo (LVMPD)
The supervisor complied and gave the money to the unknown man at a gas station. The supervisor then did the same thing two more times, the news station reported, bringing the total to $1,170,000, after meeting the person at two more businesses.
The report notes that this incident is similar to another that happened at a different property in Clark County, as well as an incident in another state.
Investigators tracked the vehicle driven by the person who accepted the cash, which led them to Gutierrez-Martinez.
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Playing cards, Casino chips (iStock)
When investigators searched his home, they discovered $849,000 in cash separated into bundles labeled, “Circa.” Investigators are reportedly looking for the additional money.
Gutierrez-Martinez was arrested on June 18, and charged in connection to the scheme. A judge ordered him to be held on $25,000 bail.
The CEO of Circa, Derek Stevens, turned to social media with a statement about the incident.
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“Although I love a good PR story, this isn’t one of them,” he said on Twitter. “@CircaLasVegas is cooperating with @LVMPD in this investigation. We greatly appreciate their efforts to date and cannot comment further due to an ONGOING investigation.”
