Feds have indicted one of the suspects behind the $700,000 scamming heist from Four Winds Hartford Casino. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

After a “months-long investigation,” the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan (USAO-WDMI) has indicted the man linked to a $700,000 theft of Four Winds Hartford Casino – part of a classic name-dropping scam.

On Tuesday, the USAO-WDMI announced a federal grand jury’s verdict and subsequently formally charged Jesus Gaytan-Garcia for his role in the July 2023 casino heist. The DOJ shared the indictment on X, which charges Gaytan-Garcia with one count apiece of theft and “interstate transportation of stolen money”:

The charges stem from a call that came into the Four Winds gaming establishment on July 30 by a man pretending to be Chairman of the casino’s owner and operator, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians. Claiming he needed cash to make an urgent payment, the scam caller convinced the casino supervisor to gather up $700,000 in cash and head to a rendezvous in Gary, Indiana.

handed the cash over to two unknown individuals at a gas station

Young, who police in August 2023 wrongly arrested for her role in the heist, handed the cash over to two unknown individuals at a gas station. The feds have now put a name to one of them, Gaytan-Garcia, who they finally arrested earlier this month.

In a statement, US Attorney for the USAO-WDMI Mark Totten said, as one of the perpetrators, Gaytan-Garcia would pay for “this brazen crime.” Totten also urged everyone to be “diligent and cautious about phone and internet scams.”

Pokagon Tribal Police Chief Mario RedLegs, meanwhile, stated the indictment sent a “clear message that the Pokagon Band will not tolerate criminal activity of any kind at our casinos.”