{"id":290356,"date":"2023-09-19T12:41:31","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T17:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=290356"},"modified":"2023-09-19T13:08:02","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T18:08:02","slug":"circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/","title":{"rendered":"Circa Casino \u2018Imposter Scammer\u2019 Pleads Guilty in $1.1M Heist"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man accused of stealing more than $1 million from Circa Hotel & Casino<\/a> in downtown Las Vegas by pretending to be one of its owners<\/a> pleaded guilty Monday to one count of theft of more than $100K.<\/p>\n

\"Erik
Erik Gutierrez Martinez pleaded guilty Monday, but it appears he had accomplices who are still at large, and $314K is missing from the Circa heist. (Image: Yahoo News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Erik Gutierrez Martinez, 24, was arrested on June 18, a day after the robbery. When investigators searched his home, they found bundles of cash from the Circa heist.<\/p>\n

He was also charged with a similar robbery<\/a> at the Eureka Casino Resort in Mesquite, Nev., and is a suspect in a third at the Golden Nugget in Laughlin, Nev.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As part of his plea deal, Gutierrez Martinez accepts guilt only in the Circa case. He also accepts he will receive a prison sentence of between one and 10 years.<\/p>\n

An Imposter Calls<\/strong><\/h2>\n

On June 17, a cage supervisor received a telephone call from an individual claiming to be one of the casino\u2019s owners. Circa is owned by the brothers Derek and Greg Stevens.<\/p>\n

The imposter<\/a> claimed emergency payments needed to be made as soon as possible to the Fire Department so they could perform tests on the fire extinguishers. Further payments would then be needed to purchase additional fire safety devices, the caller said.<\/p>\n

\n

Failure to deliver the money could cause city officials to order a temporary shutdown of operations, potentially costing the operator millions of dollars, claimed the impostor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The case supervisor delivered the money in four installments totaling $1.17 million to two men at four different locations. All the time she believed she was on the phone to the owner and texting with her manager, police said.<\/p>\n

Investigators traced a car used in the heist to Gutierrez Martinez\u2019s aunt\u2019s house, leading to his arrest.<\/strong><\/p>\n

No one else has been arrested in connection with the scheme, which appeared to have several participants, and $314K from the Circa haul remains unrecovered.<\/p>\n

Eureka Moment<\/strong><\/h2>\n

On March 2 at around 1:30 a.m., an individual calling himself \u201cMichael Gunther\u201d telephoned the Eureka casino cage from a Mexican phone number about a missing check. \u201cGunther\u201d explained he was a representative of the company that supplied the casino\u2019s hand sanitizer. He claimed the cage supervisor would find the check payable to his company in the safe.<\/p>\n

When no such check was found, the caller told the supervisor that $250K needed to be delivered immediately to an address in Las Vegas. When the supervisor arrived at the location, she was surprised to discover it was a Circle K convenience store.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cGunther\u201d told her to deposit $15K into a Bitcoin Depot kiosk. He then directed her to a 7-Eleven to meet somebody called \u201cAnthony,\u201d who would receive the remaining $235K. Soon after handing over the cash, the supervisor received a call from the casino that something was wrong and she was able to grab the money back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Investigators now believe that \u201cAnthony\u201d was Gutierrez Martinez.<\/p>\n

The $15K transferred into Bitcoin was sent to 17 different accounts, including to some based in Gibraltar, an offshore tax haven in the Mediterranean, according to court filings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A man accused of stealing more than $1 million from Circa Hotel & Casino in downtown Las Vegas by pretending to be one of its owners pleaded guilty Monday to one count of theft of more than $100K. Erik Gutierrez Martinez, 24, was arrested on June 18, a day after the robbery. When investigators searched […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":290359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,21,81886,60],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCirca Casino \u2018Imposter Scammer\u2019 Pleads Guilty in $1.1M Heist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Erik Gutierrez Martinez pleads guilty to one count stealing $1.1 million from Circa Casino in Las Vegas by impersonating one of its owners.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Circa Casino \u2018Imposter Scammer\u2019 Pleads Guilty in $1.1M Heist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Erik Gutierrez Martinez pleads guilty to one count stealing $1.1 million from Circa Casino in Las Vegas by impersonating one of its owners.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-19T17:41:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-19T18:08:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/circa.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"618\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/\",\"name\":\"Circa Casino \u2018Imposter Scammer\u2019 Pleads Guilty in $1.1M Heist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/circa.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-19T17:41:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-19T18:08:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Erik Gutierrez Martinez pleads guilty to one count stealing $1.1 million from Circa Casino in Las Vegas by impersonating one of its owners.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/circa.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/circa.jpg\",\"width\":1100,\"height\":618,\"caption\":\"Erik Gutierrez Martinez pleaded guilty Monday, but it appears he had accomplices who are still at large, and $314K is missing from the Circa heist. (Image: Yahoo News)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Commercial Gaming\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/commercial-gaming\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Circa Casino \u2018Imposter Scammer\u2019 Pleads Guilty in $1.1M Heist\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Circa Casino \u2018Imposter Scammer\u2019 Pleads Guilty in $1.1M Heist","description":"Erik Gutierrez Martinez pleads guilty to one count stealing $1.1 million from Circa Casino in Las Vegas by impersonating one of its owners.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Circa Casino \u2018Imposter Scammer\u2019 Pleads Guilty in $1.1M Heist","og_description":"Erik Gutierrez Martinez pleads guilty to one count stealing $1.1 million from Circa Casino in Las Vegas by impersonating one of its owners.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2023-09-19T17:41:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-09-19T18:08:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1100,"height":618,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/circa.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/","name":"Circa Casino \u2018Imposter Scammer\u2019 Pleads Guilty in $1.1M Heist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/circa.jpg","datePublished":"2023-09-19T17:41:31+00:00","dateModified":"2023-09-19T18:08:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Erik Gutierrez Martinez pleads guilty to one count stealing $1.1 million from Circa Casino in Las Vegas by impersonating one of its owners.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/circa.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/circa.jpg","width":1100,"height":618,"caption":"Erik Gutierrez Martinez pleaded guilty Monday, but it appears he had accomplices who are still at large, and $314K is missing from the Circa heist. (Image: Yahoo News)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circa-casino-imposter-scammer-pleads-guilty-in-1-1m-heist\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Commercial Gaming","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/commercial-gaming\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Circa Casino \u2018Imposter Scammer\u2019 Pleads Guilty in $1.1M Heist"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290356"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290356"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":290381,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290356\/revisions\/290381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}