Husbands and wives got $5.2 million out of Miccosukee Casino. Prison could be next
Four Miami-Dade couples pleaded guilty to a ripoff of Miccosukee Casino’s gambling video games the same way they pulled off the thievery: as a group and on the family plan.
Pleading guilty in Miami federal court to conspiracy to steal funds in excess of $1,000, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and money laundering conspiracy were Michel Aleu, Lester Lavin, Yohander Jorrin Melhen, and Leonardo Betancourt.
And their wives, respectively, Maria Del Pilar Aleu, Yusmary Duran, Anisleydi Vergel Hermida, and Milagros Marile Acosta Torres, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering offenses.
Over nearly 4 1/2 years, they embezzled $5.2 million, the Justice Department said.
The couples’ division of labor placed the husbands doing the “work,” then bringing home the money to the wives, who laundered the money.
Aleu was Miccosukee Gaming’s assistant video director and the direct supervisor of his video supervisor was Lavin.
Jorrin and Betancourt were video technicians, so all were familiar with electronic gaming machines (EGMs).
Getting the cash
According to the casino workers’ admissions of facts, here’s how the scam worked from January 2011 until May 27, 2015.
One of the four would act as if a machine needed service, giving him an excuse to open it. He’d put a wire to a port on the machine’s mother board, which had a coin-counting device.
“The perpetrator would then attach the other end of the wire to a metal surface inside the EGM, causing the EGM to generate and record false “coin-in” amounts totaling thousands of dollars,” the court documents say. One of the four “would then cause the EGM to generate false credit vouchers for ‘coin in’ amounts and would present the vouchers to Miccosukee Gaming, in exchange for cash.”
Occasionally, one of the supervisors, Lavin or Aleu, would distract the security officer who had to be there when the machine was opened while Jorrin or Betancourt handled the mechanics.
Cleaning things Up
Handling the money fell to the wives, who set up multiple bank accounts and moved cash around as in a shell game (and one couple did use a shell company). Investigators easily followed the money, however.
Lavin and Hermida washed the most, $654,150. Among their purchases was a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in La Rive Gauche, 5880 Collins Ave., in Miami Beach, that went for $285,000 in September 2012. They made payments on their unit in Greens Condo in West Miami-Dade, which they had owned since 2002. They threw $33,929 in one Florida Prepaid College Board’s account and $27,278.94 in another such account.
As part of laundering at least $395,944, in 2011, Michel Aleu gave Maria Aleu $15,000 cash to buy a 2010 Infiniti QX56 SUV from South Motors Infiniti.
Betancourt and Duran laundered $157,091.33. She transferred $28,737.80 to the Florida Prepaid College Plan in April 2016. From May 2014 through October 2018, they paid $74,650.08 on the mortgage for the home Miami-Dade online property records put at 15411 SW 143rd Ave.
Jorrin and Acosta Torres helped Aleu launder some of money by putting two $9,000 checks (keeping it under the $10,000 level requiring federal and state reporting) into an account with only Acosta’s name. In 2012, Acosta moved $10,000 between a couple of accounts before using it to close on Jorrin’s $230,000 purchase of a house at 14247 SW 165th St.
They’ll be sentenced at various dates this month and next.
This story was originally published February 4, 2020 at 2:01 PM.
