Las Vegas Strip Casino Employee Charged With $770K Theft

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No doubt many gamblers remember the classic Ocean’s Eleven movie – whether the original from 1960 starring Frank Sinatra, Sammy David Jr., and Dean Martin or the 2001 version with George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Matt Damon. The story focuses on a band of thieves hoping to score millions of dollars from a Las Vegas casino.

While a recent case of theft may not have the star power of the famed films, an Aria hotel operations manager is now alleged to have stolen more than $770,000 from the casino. Police charged 38-year-old Brandon Rashaad Johnson with stealing the cash from the MGM Resorts property from July 2022 to July 2023

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Johnson had worked at the casino since 2013. Some of his recent behavior appears to have led to co-workers, and later police, discovering the alleged crimes.

“In early July 2023, the report states another hotel manager became suspicious of Johnson due to the expensive items he was purchasing and suspected he might be making fraudulent reservation refunds to his own credit card,” KLAS reported this week. “Johnson did have the authority to do refunds but during an internal audit and investigation that started on July 25, it was discovered there were 309 refunds done by Johnson to the same Visa credit card number, documents showed.”

Authorities believe Johnson issued hundreds of fraudulent refunds to his debit card and used some of those funds for Louis Vuitton and Versace shopping sprees, the use of private jets, spa visits, purchasing a home, and more. A fellow employee even noted that Johnson began giving him gifts.

Johnson told the colleague the money was coming from a side job as a private chef. That same employee had never seen Johnson cook and said he’d never mentioned being a chef before according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. After investigating, the co-worker discovered that the refunds were all going to the same credit card and alerted company management.

Johnson turned himself in to police on Sept. 1 and remains in the Clark County jail. Beyond simply stealing the money, police allege he began moving funds between several bank accounts, adding to his charges.

“It is common for criminals to move money between accounts to make the fraudulent funds harder to track and also make the stolen money appear legitimate,” the suspect’s report noted.

No bail has been set in the case and Johnson hasn’t provided a comment on the allegations. He now faces a litany of charges including:

• Theft of more than $5,000 but under $25,000 (two counts)
• Theft of more than $25,000 but less than $100,000 (nine counts)
• Theft of more than $100,000 (two counts)
• Money laundering, attempted money laundering
• Unlawful felony act regarding computers