{"id":302952,"date":"2023-12-12T16:49:11","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T22:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=302952"},"modified":"2023-12-15T22:07:23","modified_gmt":"2023-12-16T04:07:23","slug":"us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/","title":{"rendered":"US Virgin Islands Casino Commission Worker Sentenced for Embezzlement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/leon-black-held-stake-caesars-entertainment-linked-to-jeffrey-epstein\/\">US Virgin Islands<\/a> Casino Commission worker whose job was to advise on responsible gambling was sentenced Tuesday to 44 months in prison for embezzling commission funds.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_302953\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-302953\" data-style=\"width: 858px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-302953 size-post-thumbnail-858xAUTO\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Barnes-858x482.jpg\" alt=\"Stephanie Barnes, US Virgin Islands Casino Commission\" width=\"858\" height=\"482\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Barnes-858x482.jpg 858w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Barnes-430x242.jpg 430w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Barnes.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 858px) 100vw, 858px\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-302953\"class=\"text-description\">Stephanie Barnes, center, heading into a St Croix courtroom in December 2001. Later that month, a jury unanimously found her guilty of theft and tax evasion. (Image: The Virgin Islands Consortium)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/virgin-islands-casino-commission-responsible-gaming-contractor-guilty\/\">Stephanie Barnes<\/a>, 64, was hired in 2015 as a contractor by commission president Violet Anne Golden as the regulator\u2019s first \u201ccertified gambling specialist,\u201d despite having no experience in the field. Subsequently, Barnes and Golden went to town with commission funds, splurging on expensive entertainment and clothing, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>This included chartering a plane to the St. Kitts Music Festival, for which they purchased VIP passes. The pair traveled to casino-related conferences while enjoying \u201cluxurious hotel stays\u201d and expensive meals, and even squeezed in a trip to Disney World in Florida. They also caught <em>Hamilton<\/em> on Broadway, according to the court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The U.S. Virgin Islands casino market is small, with just two licensed casinos: Divi Carina Bay Resort &amp; Casino and Casino at Hotel Caravelle, both on St. Croix. documents.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Profligate Spending <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Barnes\u2019 and Goldens\u2019 infractions were uncovered in 2018 following an investigation by Virgin Island\u2019s Inspector General, and the findings were referred to the FBI. The two were indicted on July 11, 2019, and arrested a week later.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>Barnes denied charges of conspiracy to commit theft from programs receiving federal funds, receipt of government property, and filing false tax returns. She claimed she was innocently caught up in a culture of wasteful spending instigated by her boss, Golden.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Golden pleaded guilty in January 2020 to misappropriating $295,503 of government funds. Thanks to her plea deal, she was sentenced to a 24-month prison term and was released in September 2021. When Barnes went to trial in December that year, Golden was the prosecution\u2019s star witness.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>$600K Salary Top-Up<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>On Dec. 23, 2001, after two days of deliberations, a District Court jury unanimously found Barnes guilty of all three charges.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>The tax evasion charge related to Barnes&#8217; reported income to the IRS of $35,894 in 2016, despite knowing she had received much more in cash and perks from the casino commission\u2019s coffers. Investigators determined that she received salary and benefits totaling $600K in approximately three years thanks to her arrangement with Golden.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>District Court Chief Judge Robert Molloy ordered the defendant to pay restitution of $247,490 and to serve three years of supervised release once her sentence ends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A US Virgin Islands Casino Commission worker whose job was to advise on responsible gambling was sentenced Tuesday to 44 months in prison for embezzling commission funds. Stephanie Barnes, 64, was hired in 2015 as a contractor by commission president Violet Anne Golden as the regulator\u2019s first \u201ccertified gambling specialist,\u201d despite having no experience in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":302953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,13592],"tags":[89125,89126],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>US Virgin Islands Casino Regulator Sentenced for Embezzlement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stephanie Barnes, former certified gambling specialist at the US Virgin Islands\u2019 Casino Commission gets 44 months in prison.\" \/>\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\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US Virgin Islands Casino Regulator Sentenced for Embezzlement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stephanie Barnes, former certified gambling specialist at the US Virgin Islands\u2019 Casino Commission gets 44 months in prison.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/\" \/>\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=\"2023-12-12T22:49:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-16T04:07:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Barnes.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"562\" \/>\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\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/\",\"name\":\"US Virgin Islands Casino Regulator Sentenced for Embezzlement\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Barnes.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-12T22:49:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-16T04:07:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Stephanie Barnes, former certified gambling specialist at the US Virgin Islands\u2019 Casino Commission gets 44 months in prison.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Barnes.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Barnes.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":562,\"caption\":\"Stephanie Barnes, center, heading into a St Croix courtroom in December 2001. Later that month, a jury unanimously found her guilty of theft and tax evasion. 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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":"US Virgin Islands Casino Regulator Sentenced for Embezzlement","description":"Stephanie Barnes, former certified gambling specialist at the US Virgin Islands\u2019 Casino Commission gets 44 months in prison.","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\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"US Virgin Islands Casino Regulator Sentenced for Embezzlement","og_description":"Stephanie Barnes, former certified gambling specialist at the US Virgin Islands\u2019 Casino Commission gets 44 months in prison.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2023-12-12T22:49:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-12-16T04:07:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":562,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Barnes.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\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/","name":"US Virgin Islands Casino Regulator Sentenced for Embezzlement","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Barnes.jpg","datePublished":"2023-12-12T22:49:11+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-16T04:07:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Stephanie Barnes, former certified gambling specialist at the US Virgin Islands\u2019 Casino Commission gets 44 months in prison.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-virgin-islands-casino-commission-worker-sentenced-for-embezzlement\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Barnes.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Barnes.jpg","width":1000,"height":562,"caption":"Stephanie Barnes, center, heading into a St Croix courtroom in December 2001. 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