Woman who stole $28,600 from senior gets year in jail
A former caregiver who fuelled her gambling addiction by bilking an elderly woman out of more than $28,000 in savings is going to jail. Carol Jean McQuade, 60, was handed a one-year jail term and two years of probation at a sentencing hearing Friday. She will have until the end of her probation to pay $28,600 in restitution to the woman, a 92-year-old retired nurse who served in Europe during the Second World War.
Miller woman pleads to bank embezzlement
A judge has accepted Susan Mareska’s guilty plea to bank embezzlement as part of a plea agreement in which federal prosecutors will dismiss other charges when she is sentenced in December. Court documents put the loss over a 7-year period at $152,909 or more to American Bank & Trust of Miller, where Mareska was employed. According to a factual basis statement filed in court, the 50-year-old woman developed a gambling habit and took interest, money from certificates of deposit, interest retirement accounts, war bond money and other distributions from elderly bank customers who likely would not realize the money was missing.
2 Men In Custody In Cockfighting Ring
Douglas County Sheriff Ken McGovern said two men were taken into custody after a raid Tuesday at a Eudora farm. Authorities said it was a breeding location for cockfighting roosters. The sheriff said Ezqueil Olivas was arrested and accused of three counts of cockfighting and a count of possessing cockfighting paraphernalia.
Ark. man allegedly defrauded NLR bidding process
An Arkansas man running an illegal gambling operation conspired with a North Little Rock alderman and a contractor to rig city bids to collect on debts, a federal grand jury indictment unsealed Monday alleges. George Wylie Thompson, 64, of Cabot was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand and later brought to Los Angeles, U.S. Attorney Jane Duke said. An investigation into Thompson’s gambling operation led FBI agents to discover the bid-rigging scheme in North Little Rock that involved concrete purchases and landscaping project, Duke said.
Adviser admits $9M investor scam
A longtime financial adviser from Monmouth County pleaded guilty yesterday to bilking investors out of more than $9 million, authorities said. He claimed the fund, which he created in 1992 and called Health Care Financial Partners, had more than $300 million in assets made up of loans to health care facilities such as nursing homes. But in truth, Smith deposited the money into his own bank accounts and used it for dining at restaurants, gambling and traveling abroad, authorities said.
Vegas fraud a sign of the times
That’s what appears to be happening at many casinos today at least, according to a panel of security experts that spoke Monday during the first day of conferences at the Global Gaming Expo. The panel said that despite new technology, or perhaps because of it, many of the crimes that casino security people are seeing today are updates of old scams.
“When there is nothing new they can create, they go back to the old,” said Jessie Beaudoin, senior director of surveillance at the Hard Rock Hotel. “A lot of the things you hear about are not new scams, per se. But they’re trends that are starting to rear their ugly heads again.”
22 Held in Staten Island Betting and Loan Sharking Raids
Twenty-two people, including reputed members of organized crime families and a New York State court officer, were arrested on loan sharking and gambling charges in early-morning raids on Staten Island. “These investigations uncovered the intricate network that organized crime families had developed in Staten Island,” said Daniel M. Donovan, the Richmond County district attorney.
Massive Illegal Gambling Bust Yields 38 Arrests, $32,000
Illegal gambling busts have been on the rise over the last year, spread across multiple states. One of the most recent stings came in Galveston and Texas City, Texas. Thirty-eight were arrested, one of which was charged with a felony, during two similtaneous raids. Sportsbetting was the operation in question, and it was presumed that players would be trying to collect on their college football wagers from the day previous.
PA Gaming Control Board Fines Casino for Underage Gambling Violations
A $24,000 fine was levied today by the Commonwealth’s gaming oversight agency on a south central Pennsylvania casino operator for three separate violations dealing with underage gambling. During the past two years, the Gaming Control Board has levied fines statewide on six occasions for violations of underage gambling or minors on the gaming floor totaling $211,500.
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