Thursday, July 08, 1999
Casino worker accused of $84K theft
Runner walked off with cash, police say
BY RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
RISING SUN, Ind. - Surrounded by fellow Grand Victoria employees and under the watchful eye of security cameras, a 23-year-old cash runner employed just more than a month at the casino walked off the job with $84,000 Tuesday night, police said.
Carrying the bundle of unmarked, unrecorded, $100 bills, Eihab A. Nassar allegedly walked through the casino and down an employee stairwell. He got into his green, 1992 or 1993 Honda and drove away, according to Indiana state police 1st Sgt. Larry McCart.
Mr. Nassar was stopped for speeding by an Ohio County Sheriff's Deputy at 11:05 p.m., about 11/2 miles east of the casino. But it was a routine traffic stop — not Mr. Nassar's first — and he simply dealt with the officer and drove away.
“This appears to be an opportunistic theft of "Here's the money, here's a way I can circumvent the system,' and he's gone,” said Sgt. McCart. He works for the Indianapolis-based state police Gaming Division, which is responsible for law enforcement of the state's nine riverboat casinos.
Sgt. McCart said this is the largest employee theft from any of the four Ohio River casinos: Grand Victoria, Argosy Casino in Lawrenceburg, Caesar's Glory of Rome in Bridgeport and Casino Aztar in Evansville. But larger thefts have occurred on riverboats cruising Lake Michigan in northwest Indiana.
Authorities are still searching for Mr. Nassar, a citizen of Amman, Jordan, who came to the United States about three years ago. He began working at Grand Victoria on June 4. He is 5 feet 8 inches tall, 140 pounds and has black hair and brown eyes.
Mr. Nassar has been living in Cincinnati, at one or more addresses not released by police. One relative, either an uncle or a cousin, also lives in Cincinnati. Police checked both residences Wednesday morn ing, but Mr. Nassar was nowhere to be found.
“As you can imagine, (his Jordanian citizenship) is a concern for us as far as where he may have gone,” Sgt. McCart said.
Grand Victoria is conducting its own investigation to determine if any employees' negligence allowed the theft to occur. Police say they have no other suspects.
Mr. Nassar bypassed casino security procedures when he picked up that last bag of cash at 10:30 p.m., near the end of
his shift. He did not call for the security escort who should have accompanied him from the first floor bank to a third floor cashier.
“They weren't notified,” said Indiana State Police Detective Pete Tressler about the casino's internal security force.
Casino officials changed their security procedures Wednesday morning. From now on, a security guard's presence must be verified before a cashier releases any cash to one of the casino's runners.
“What already was a good system, they've tightened,” Sgt. McCart said.
Casino officials declined to comment on the case.
As with any casino employee, Mr. Nassar was subject to a criminal background check before he could be licensed to work on Grand Victoria. That check revealed only misdemeanor traffic offenses, Sgt. McCart said.
Officials were still waiting on the results of Mr. Nassar's fingerprint analysis and a check of his background in Jordan.
But it is not unusual for an employee to begin working while such documentation is pending. If a prior felony had been uncovered, Mr. Nassar would have been dismissed, Sgt. McCart said.
“Grand Victoria did everything right,” he said.
Mr. Nassar is wanted on a felony theft warrant from Ohio County.
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