http:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/main\/2013\/03\/ … theft.html<\/a><\/p>\n\tA former Santa Ana Star Casino employee on Wednesday pleaded guilty to embezzling money from the casino, the office of U.S. Attorney Kenneth Gonzales announced. <\/p>\n
\tJohn Hoffman, 42, of Rio Rancho pleaded guilty to a felony charge of theft by an employee of an Indian gaming establishment, according to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office news release. His wife, Michelle Fischer, 42, named as an accomplice, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor theft charge. <\/p>\n
\n\tSanta Ana Pueblo issued a statement following the pleas. <\/p>\n
\t\u201cFormer Santa Ana Star Casino employee, John Hoffman, defrauded Santa Ana Star Casino in 2011,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cWhile our guests were not affected in any way, a highly experienced management team was brought in and uncovered the fraud and they worked closely with the Santa Ana Gaming Regulatory Commission, Santa Ana Tribal Police, and federal investigators to apprehend Mr. Hoffman. Santa Ana Star Casino does not condone nor tolerate any type of criminal behavior and\/or activities from its employees and works closely with law enforcement officials to keep the gaming industry honest and fair for all of our guests.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tHoffman was accused of embezzling money from the casino beginning in December 2010 until August 2011, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office news release states. Hoffman, at the time, was working in the marketing department of the casino. <\/p>\n
\n\tIn pleading guilty, Hoffman admitted he abused his position at the casino by gaining access to active and inactive \u201cPlayer\u2019s Club\u201d cards and adding money and credits to the cards without proper basis or authority, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office said. He then gave the cards to Fischer knowing she intended to distribute the cards to others who would use the cards to gamble. Winners would then give Hoffman and Fischer a parentage of their winnings. <\/p>\n
\n\tFischer, in her plea, admitted obtaining the cards though she was not entitled to them, and then distributing them to others with the understanding she\u2019d receive a percentage of winnings, the news release reads. She also admitted using some of the cards to gamble, though she wasn\u2019t entitled to them. <\/p>\n
\n\tHoffman and Fischer were released pending their sentencing hearings, which have not been scheduled. <\/p>\n
\n\tHoffman faces a maximum prison term of 20 years, while Fischer faces a maximum one year term. Both will be required to make restitution to Santa Ana Star Casino. <\/p>\n
\n\tThe cases were investigated by Santa Ana Tribal Police Department, and are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle T. Nayback. The guilty pleas were announced by Gonzales and Santa Ana Police Chief Harry Betz.
\n\t \u2014 This article appeared on page 21 of the Albuquerque Journal<\/p>\n
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Casino worker guilty in theft http:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/main\/2013\/03\/ … theft.html A former Santa Ana Star Casino employee on Wednesday pleaded guilty to embezzling money from the casino, the office of U.S. Attorney Kenneth Gonzales announced. John Hoffman, 42, of Rio Rancho pleaded…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2963\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}