Nebraska men steal more than $350K from SD casino

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Two Nebraska men face wire fraud and other charges related to a scam where they were able to steal more than $350,000 from a casino in northern South Dakota. 

According to recently unsealed federal court documents, Roberto Carlos Gonzales Miranda and Roberto Orellana have been indicted by a grand jury for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit theft from a gaming establishment on Indian Lands and transportation of stolen money. 

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A court date has not been set for Miranda or Orellana. 

Court documents say the scheme from Miranda and Orellana targeted the Grand River Casino in rural Corson County near Mobridge in February 2024. The casino is owned and operated by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. 

An unknown woman called the casino and spoke with a cage manager, receiving a cell phone number for the cage manager. Then, a man pretending to be a collections contractor for the USPS said the casino owed $700,000 in fees for an audit or inspection and additional fines would come if cash wasn’t paid immediately. 

According to court documents, the woman remained on the landline phone with the casino and was working with the collections pretender. A third text, from an unknown number, claiming to be the cage manager’s supervisor directed the casino worker to “empty the vault and deposit the cash at a Bitcoin ATM in Aberdeen, South Dakota.” 

The casino worker took $352,000 from the casino vault and traveled to Aberdeen and was later called to meet in a parking lot in Mitchell to get the money, court documents said. After meeting in Mitchell, Miranda took the cash and an unknown co-conspirator wired Orellana $1,600 in exchange for his part in the fraud.